Damn, I always abused apt-preferences to achieve the same effect as apt-mark hold|unhold. Thanks! Does 'apt-get dist-upgrade' respect held packages?

A-M is the recommended way to hold a package, previously you would use `dpkg --get-selections`. All apt/dpkg commands will abide by what you set with A-M.

Yes, it does.

Do you think hold/unhold is anything like masking in gentoo? Me neither...