yum-versionlock

Lock a package to its currently installed version

$ sudo yum versionlock add [package_name]

$ yum versionlock list

$ sudo yum versionlock delete [package_name]

$ sudo yum versionlock clear

$ sudo yum versionlock add [package_name]-[version]-[release]

$ sudo yum versionlock exclude [package_pattern*]

$ yum versionlock status

yum versionlock [add] [list] [delete] [clear] [exclude] [status] [package ...]

yum-versionlock is a yum plugin that allows administrators to lock specific packages to their currently installed versions, preventing them from being updated during system upgrades. This is useful for maintaining stability when newer package versions might break compatibility or when specific versions are required for compliance.
When a package is locked, yum will skip it during yum update operations, even if newer versions are available in configured repositories. The lock persists across reboots and update sessions until explicitly removed.
Locked packages are stored in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/versionlock.list (or similar path depending on the distribution). Each entry follows the NEVRA format: name-epoch:version-release.arch.
The plugin must be installed separately via yum install yum-plugin-versionlock (RHEL/CentOS 7) or dnf install python3-dnf-plugin-versionlock (Fedora/RHEL 8+). On newer systems using DNF, the command syntax is dnf versionlock.

add package

Lock the specified package(s) to their currently installed versions. Prevents yum from updating these packages.

Display all currently locked packages and their versions.

Remove the version lock from the specified package(s), allowing them to be updated again.

Remove all version locks from the system.

Add packages to the exclude list based on wildcards or patterns.

Show whether the versionlock plugin is enabled and functioning.

Locking packages may create dependency conflicts if other packages require newer versions. Security updates are also blocked for locked packages, potentially leaving vulnerabilities unpatched. The lock file format changed between yum and dnf versions. Version locks do not prevent manual installation of specific versions.

The versionlock plugin was developed as part of the yum-utils package collection for Red Hat-based Linux distributions. It provided functionality similar to apt-mark hold on Debian systems. With the transition from yum to DNF in Fedora 22 (2015) and RHEL 8 (2019), the plugin was rewritten as a DNF plugin while maintaining command compatibility.

yum(8), dnf(8), rpm(8), yum-config-manager(1)