TIP Installing Specific Packages

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It has been suggested that TIP Emering a specific version of a software package be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

This article is part of the Tips & Tricks series.

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[edit] Introduction

This article will provide you with the tools needed to:

Install a specific version of a program
Have 2 versions of a program at once

[edit] Installing A Specific Version

Many times, for compatibility reasons, you may need a certain version of a package, even though that version might not be the newest. Portage has a feature that allows you to pick from the versions of each package that exist so that you may choose which version of a package to install.

To find the package versions available, you can go to a site such as Gentoo-Portage (unofficial) or you can use equery from the command line. Equery is included as part of the gentoolkit package. If you don't already have it the gentoolkit package can be installed very easily.

Code: Installing gentoolkit

# emerge -av gentoolkit

Once gentoolkit has been installed, you can use the equery tool to list available versions of a package.

Code: Listing available versions of a package

# equery list -p <category>/<package>

example:

# equery list -p media-sound/moodbar

Now that you know which versions are available to you, you may pick the version you would like and install it like so.

Code: Emerge a specific version

# emerge =<category>/<package>-<version>

example:

# emerge =sys-kernel/development-sources-2.6.5

[edit] Installing Specific (Older) Versions

If you want to keep and install a specific version of a package, you need to use the /etc/portage/package.mask file to mask out versions you don't want installed. For details on /etc/portage/package.mask and it's usage, see man portage.

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