package-management
Recently, I needed to get a list of packages that were installed on my Ubuntu system which were also put on hold for upgrade.
The 'hold' status for a package means that when the operating system is upgraded, the installer will not upgrade these packages either, unless explicitly stated in the options.
I am looking for a command-line solution but understand this may be possible from the GUI as well.
Since no answer using apt has been found, I would suggest going into Synaptic Package Manager, click on the Status button at lower left then click on Installed (manual) at upper left to see a list of installed packages.
Then you can output a list from Synaptic with File | Save Markings As and save the file where you can work with it.
This is a dpkg change, not an apt change:
# dpkg --get-selections | grep hold
google-chrome-stable hold
# dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_44.0.2403.125-1_amd64.deb
(Reading database ... 318187 files and directories currently installed.)
...
# dpkg --get-selections | grep hold
#
After doing some git bisect, this change was introduced in https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git/commit/?id=fb8997a460a0ef2909199b4603604a4e855003e0 as part of https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=162541
Best Answer
You can use
apt-mark:this will show the packages that are kept in "hold" state so that the pacakge manager won't auto upgrade the packages.
From
man apt-mark: