update-notifier and a locally recompiled package.

[Adam Fabian]

I have encountered some behavior that is a little confusing and that I
don't know how to deal with.

I recompiled the exim package (without understanding the process too
much, I really just needed to change a #define in a header file), and
got a bunch of .debs.  I was using exim4-daemon-light and I replaced
the installed package with my package.  Now, all of the package tools
want to upgrade exim-daemon-light from version 4.52-1 to version
4.52-1.  (That's not a typo; that's my problem.)  I do almost all of
my package management with aptitude, and with aptitude, I have 'held'
the package.  But I'm afraid Synaptic or that update-notifier are
going to try to upgrade my package, and aside from that, I'd like the
update-notifier to not constantly tell me I need to upgrade a package
that doesn't need upgrading.

So, my questions:

Why/how does the packaging system decide it wants to 'upgrade' a
package with a package of the same version?

How can I keep my locally compiled version and get all of the package
tools working reasonably? (i.e., they will not try to upgrade my
package until there is at least a higher version number available, the
update manager will not show that it is a package in need of
upgrading, etc.)

I tried pinning as best as I understood it, and it didn't seem to
work.  It may be a solution that I didn't understand.

Any help would be appreciated.