The version number of a package contains several valuable pieces of information which we try to describe below.
Example: 2:3.6.19-1~bpo70+1
* 2: =
* 3.6.19 = major.minor.micro version number of the package upstream
* -1 = Debian-specific addition
* ~bpo70 = backported to Debian 7.0 aka Squeeze
* +1 =
===== Package pinning =====
In specific cases it may be required to force a certain version of a package and prevent the installation of any upgrades. This can for instance be achieved through package pinning in //apt//. In practice this boils down to creating a config file in ''/etc/apt/preferences.d/'' with a regexp to match the package names, which version to pin and the priority.
Example:
<code>
Package: /samba|smb|wbclient|winbind/
Pin: version 2:3.6.19-1~bpo70+1
Pin-Priority: 991
</code>
Use ''apt-cache policy <packagename>'' and ''apt-get upgrade'' to check that no updates would be installed for the requested packages.
