In a Debian package's control file, there is a Priority
field which can be set to one of:
required
important
standard
optional
extra
APT pinning can be used to specify priorities for packages from different sources but this setting is local to the computer which is actually updating and not distributed via the repository.
Can the package's priority be used by APT for selection for install? E.g. can you pass a parameter to apt-get dist-upgrade
to only upgrade required packages?
If not, what is this field used for? Does it link in with the APT pinning?
Best Answer
The Policy Manual link you provided reads:
This means several things:
aptitude
lets you search or limit the display based on priority (the latter makes it possible to operate on packages based on priority, try l then type?priority(required)
for example),