portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?

[Vizion]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Sahil Tandon
> Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 3:36 PM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: portupgrade - skipping -held by user- meaning?
> 
> 
> Vizion wrote:
> 
> > What does it mean when the message
> > ---> skipping [portname] because it is held by user 
> (specify -f to force)
> 
> Does said port appear in the HOLD_PKGS array within 
> pkgtools.conf?  From
> that file:
> 
>    # HOLD_PKGS: array
>    #
>    # This is a list of ports you don't want portupgrade(1) to upgrade,
>    # portversion(1) to suggest upgrading, or pkgdb(1) to fix.
>    # You can use wildcards ("ports glob" and "pkgname glob").
>    # -f/--force with each command will override the held status.
> 
> > and when & why should -f be specify?
> 
> When you want to force the upgrade of a package even though you've 
> "held" it in pkgtools.conf.
> 
Thanks from what you say I understand what happens but do not understand the when and whys!!
My pkgtools.conf had entries in it but none made by me. In what circumstances would one choose to "hold" and how come there are "holds" without my knowing anything about it?

This is always one of the difficulties with freebsd .. the what and how questions get answered in the man pages but information that informs judgement upon when the "how" and "what" to-do is best implemented are missing!!

Thanks for your help

David