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If a package is present in the ubuntu repository (the one at archive.ubuntu.com), can I expect that the same package (or later versions of the package) will always be present in the repo in future versions of Ubuntu? What is the policy on removing packages from the repository from one version to the next? Is the policy different for the different sections of the repository (main, universe, multiverse, etc.)?

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No you can't be sure. You may always be able to download and backup a specific version of a software to install on further release if its get kicked from the repositories. But I strongly recommend you not to do this. Software updates and upgrades for ubuntu are well tested and should not cause problems. Of course there is no guaranty. If software packages are updated and upgraded, the are for a good reason (security issues, legacy software etc.) and you should install them.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates

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Most programs/application are normally brought forward. But there are exceptions:

  1. A program is not maintained any more, and there are doubt about its security. One example is DenyHost.

  2. A program does not compile anymore with newer libraries, and the old libraries have been dropped for lack of maintenance. This is the case of pdfedit, for example.

  3. A program still compiles, is available, but does not work correctly with the new version of libraries and there is no maintainer/sufficient interest to fix it, like the case of xfig.

In case 1, the best thing to do is to go forward --- an insecure program is insecure, full stop.

In the other cases, a workaround is nice to have. In the linked posts there are the specific ones; I asked for a more general one here.

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