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I use few apps infrequently and would prefer them updated at reduced frequency. Certain apps are too critical to be updated anytime and I'd like them to be updated when I am ready to handle a potential crash. In "Software & Updates", their is an option to globally configure the update cycle to daily, weekly, biweekly etc. There is no option to select or deselect certain apps. Goal is to reduce unnecessary updates and save on bandwidth consumption.

Updates like security updates, ubuntu base etc are no issues. Examples of critical and less frequently used apps.

  1. Critical app : Oracle Virtualbox
  2. Less frequently used app : Firefox, VS Code, Zoom etc.
sbharti
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    If you can list which apps you want to upgrade at reduced frequency and which apps you consider too critical to update, then we may be able to provide you a better answer. Note, if you don't update the updates marked as security updates your computer may be hacked. – user68186 Feb 14 '22 at 15:14
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    It's unclear what you might consider an "unnecessary update" to be, nor how much bandwidth you imagine will be saved. If you believe that upgraded packages are likely to crash, then you might be using wrong software sources for your packages -- so the output of sudo apt update would be very helpful to guide you. – user535733 Feb 14 '22 at 15:18
  • @user68186 provided the details as requested. – sbharti Feb 15 '22 at 14:23
  • I had apt-mark hold in mind. @raj has added that option in his answer. Zoom deb version does not update at all. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1271154/updating-zoom-in-the-terminal – user68186 Feb 15 '22 at 14:29

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If your update settings are set to "display only" (not automatically download and install), then everytime updates are to be installed, the Software Updater pops up a window asking to install updates. In this window, you can individually select or deselect each update.

If you want to avoid updating some specific packages at all, you can "hold" these packages using the command:

sudo apt-mark hold packagename

It can be reversed if you later want to update this package with the command:

sudo apt-mark unhold packagename

You can also perform these operations from GUI, if you install Synaptic Package Manager. Use the "Lock version" option in the "Package" menu.

raj
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  • @user535733 I understand that OP's goal is just to delay upgrade of some specific packages rather than not upgrading them at all. In this case the described behaviour is good, because you can install the rejected upgrade next time. If the OP wants to not upgrade some packages at all, the best solution is probably to lock (hold) current versions using apt or Synaptic. – raj Feb 14 '22 at 15:25
  • I think that would be a great second paragraph to your answer, lifting it from "good answer" to "great answer" – user535733 Feb 14 '22 at 15:28
  • @raj Thanks Raj for your answer. Unfortunately that's not what I'm looking for. (I know them and have used them). What I would like is to set it up once like a configuration. – sbharti Feb 14 '22 at 23:41
  • @sbharti That is not possible. You can either stop a package from upgrading completely (using "hold"), or choose everytime if you want to update it or not. – raj Feb 14 '22 at 23:43