I am using Debian. Is there a way to mark a package as manually
installed in the package database? I want to manage some packages
outside of the package management system, and I want to flag the
packages as manually installed.

I am replacing some core components marked as required (such as
/bin/tar), and I want to mark the tar package and others as manually
installed.

(My versions are built using makefiles, and are not packaged for
Debian.)

Gentoo offers this facilty through /etc/portage/profile/package.provided
and I am hoping for similar thing in Debian, perhaps through dpkg, or
similar tool.

Thanks in advance.

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley,
393 Quinton Road West,
Quinton, BIRMINGHAM.
B32 1QE.