The APT pinning feature allows administrators to force APT to choose particular versions of packages which may be available in different versions from different repositories. This allows administrators to ensure that packages are not upgraded to versions which may conflict with other packages on the system, or that have not been sufficiently tested for unwelcome changes.
In order to do this, the pins in APT's preferences file (/etc/apt/preferences) must be modified, although graphical front-ends often make pinning simpler.
Read more about this topic: Advanced Packaging Tool
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