I've package a-package.deb which depends on b-package.deb in version 1.0. Everything works fine. But now a b-package in version 1.1 gets added to the repository. I'd suspect that apt-get installs the a-package and version 1.0 of the b-package. What really happens is, that a-package won't get installed: # apt-get install a-package Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: a-package : Depends: b-package (= 1.0) but 1.1 is to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. Is there a workaround to fix the behavior? Is there other software to use, that can handle the dependencies as defined?