In this article, we'll dive deep and see how we can upgrade specific packages in Ubuntu/CentOS distributions. Once in a while, you may be required to upgrade certain packages and leave others in their default versions. One reason for this is maintaining the stability of packages that are used in running crucial services such as databases and web servers. Sometimes an upgrade may result in changes in the package that may affect the normal running of services.
Using apt to upgrade specific packages in Ubuntu
To upgrade a specific package, login as root and run the command below
apt-get install --only-upgrade package-name
In the example below, we are going to upgrade apt
apt-get install --only-upgrade apt
Sample Output
# apt-get install --only-upgrade apt Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: apt-utils libapt-pkg5.0 Suggested packages: aptitude | synaptic | wajig dpkg-dev apt-doc python-apt The following packages will be upgraded: apt apt-utils libapt-pkg5.0 3 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 49 not upgraded. Need to get 1,945 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Using yum to upgrade specific packages in CentOS
Before anything else, we may need first to check the packages with pending updates. To do this, run the following command
yum list updates
You may need to display multiple versions of a package that exists in your system. To do this, run the command below
yum --showduplicates list httpd | expand
In the above example, you'll be displaying multiple versions of httpd package.
Installed Packages httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-67.el7_4.6 @rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases Available Packages httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-17.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-18.el7_0 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-19.el7_0 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-31.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-31.el7_1.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-40.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-40.el7_2.1 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-40.el7_2.4 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-45.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-45.el7_3.4 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-67.el7 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-67.el7_4.2 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-67.el7_4.5 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases httpd.x86_64 2.4.6-67.el7_4.6 rhui-REGION-rhel-server-releases
From the results above, we notice that the httpd package currently installed is version 2.4.6-67.el7_4.6 which is the latest. What if you wanted to install a specific version of the package, how would you go about it? The syntax for that will be as shown below
yum install packagename version
For example, If you desire to downgrade to version 2.4.6-67.el7_4.5, you'll need to remove the latest version first as shown.
yum remove httpd
Thereafter, install your preferred httpd version as shown.
yum install httpd 2.4.6-67.el7_4.5
To lock the version of the package we've installed, to avert any future updates, we use the versionlock plugin. To install the plugin, run
yum install yum-versionlock
Sample Output
yum-plugin-versionlock-1.1.31-42.el7.noarch.rpm | 32 kB 00:00:00 Running transaction check Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded Running transaction Installing : yum-plugin-versionlock-1.1.31-42.el7.noarch 1/1 Verifying : yum-plugin-versionlock-1.1.31-42.el7.noarch 1/1 Installed: yum-plugin-versionlock.noarch 0:1.1.31-42.el7 Complete!
To lock our httpd package version, we'll run the command below
yum versionlock httpd
Output
Loaded plugins: amazon-id, rhui-lb, search-disabled-repos, versionlock Adding versionlock on: 0:httpd-2.4.6-67.el7_4.5 versionlock added: 1
To upgrade specific packages
yum upgrade package-name
To temporarily exclude a package from an upgrade, run the following command
yum --exclude update package-name
Alternatively, you can use the -x flag instead of --exclude
yum -x exclude httpd,php
The above command will exclude the httpd and php packages from the upgrade as the rest of the packages are upgraded.
If you want to permanently disable a package from updates, locate the yum.conf in /etc/yum/yum.conf
Here's a snap of how it looks like
To exclude a package, append exclude=package-nameat the end of the configuration file. In this example, we'll exclude samba , httpd, php and mariadb packages from the upgrade as shown below.
If you try to upgrade either of there packages, you'll get an No packages marked for update error.
Using Pacman to upgrade specific packages in Archlinux
To update an individual package in ArchLinux using Pacman package manager, run the command below
pacman -S packagename
So for instance, if you run
pacman -S samba
The command will only update samba package only.
Read Also :
How to Exclude Specific Packages from Yum Update
How to Exclude Specific Package from apt-get Upgrade
You are welcome to try out the commands. Your feedback is highly welcome. Thank you.
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