Ubuntu – How to upgrade a particular package dependencies only

aptdependenciesdpkgpackage-management

Let's say I have a package A which has Depends: B (>= 1.0.0) in its control file.

The B was installed as an A dependency some time ago with 1.0.0 version.

Now B was updated in the repository to the 1.0.42 version and I'd like to upgrade it.

What I don't like to do: apt-get install B since it will mark B as "manually installed" (not sure how to name it correctly) package and it won't be removed with autoremove if I decide to stop using A ever.

So is there an analogue of apt-get upgrade that only upgrades a particular package and its dependencies (probably recursive, it doesn't matter in my case since B doesn't depend on anything else) only?

PS: I'm asking about currently available LTS versions. So 10.04 and 12.04

Best Answer

Well, if there won't be another answer - here is one way of doing that:

Just install it with apt-get install B explicitly, then mark it as auto installed using apt-mark markauto B