Downgrading a Package via apt-get

In a situation where a recently upgraded software is causing issues?

While you can always investigate the issue to fix it, at times, going back to the previous working version saves time and effort.

If the new version introduced a bug, you could do nothing on your end, right?

The good thing is that you can easily downgrade an apt package in Ubuntu and Debian.

All you have to do is to use the apt command like this:

sudo apt install package_name=package-version-number

That seems easy enough but how would you get the exact version number? Which old versions are supported? You can get that detail with:

sudo apt-cache policy package_name

Let me explain all this with a real-life example.

Downgrading apt package

Recently, I was updating the Ubuntu server that hosts It’s FOSS Community forum.

I did the usual apt update && apt upgrade and things went bonkers by the time updates were installed.

Apparently, the latest version of Docker didn’t support the aufs storage driver. To reduce the downtime, I opted to downgrade to the previous Docker version.

Check the currently installed package version

Downgrading a Package via apt-get — Installed Docker version

Then check for the available versions that could be installed:

sudo apt-cache policy package_name

It may throw a huge list or just a small one:

If it shows at least one older version than the current one, you are in luck.

Now, you may think that the version number of a package would be composed of just the numbers. But that may not always be the case.

Basically, you copy the entire stuff before 500 (the priority number).

brave-browser:
  Installed: 1.48.158
  Candidate: 1.48.164
  Version table:
     1.48.164 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
 *** 1.48.158 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.47.186 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.47.171 500
        500 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main amd64 Packages
     1.46.153 500

Once you have got the package number, use it to downgrade the installed package like this:

sudo apt install package_name=package-version-number

You’ll see a warning about downgrading the package, of course.

But once the process completes, your package would have been downgraded to the given older version.

So, hold it, maybe?

So, you just learned to downgrade apt packages. But if you don’t pay attention, the package will be upgraded again with the next system update.

Don’t want that? You can prevent a package from being updated. Use the apt-mark command like this:

sudo apt-mark hold package_name

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