How to install and keep an obsolete Solaris package

If you (like me) are still using Solaris (why BTW, if I may ask?), then you might stumble upon the problem of disappearing packages. Let’s take, for example, gimp:

# pkg list -af gimp
NAME (PUBLISHER)          VERSION                    IFO
image/editor/gimp         2.6.10-5.12.0.0.0.97.0     --o
image/editor/gimp         2.6.10-0.175.3.0.0.26.0    ---
image/editor/gimp         2.6.10-0.175.2.0.0.27.0    ---
image/editor/gimp         2.6.10-0.175.1.0.0.24.0    ---
image/editor/gimp         2.6.10-0.175.0.0.0.2.0     ---
image/editor/gimp         0.5.11-0.151.0.1           ---

Flag “o” means “obsolete”. If you have version “2.6.10-0.175.3.0.0.26.0” installed, and it gets updated to “2.6.10-5.12.0.0.0.97.0” (which is obsolete), your package will get removed. If this what happened, here’s the path to restore it.

First, install the latest version before “o”:

pkg install -v image/editor/gimp@2.6.10-0.175.3.0.0.26.0

Then “freeze” it:

# pkg freeze image/editor/gimp

Now if you run pkg list again, you will see two new flags:
“i” – installed
“f” – frozen

# pkg list -af gimp
NAME (PUBLISHER)            VERSION                    IFO
image/editor/gimp           2.6.10-5.12.0.0.0.97.0     --o
image/editor/gimp           2.6.10-0.175.3.0.0.26.0    if-
image/editor/gimp           2.6.10-0.175.2.0.0.27.0    ---
image/editor/gimp           2.6.10-0.175.1.0.0.24.0    ---
image/editor/gimp           2.6.10-0.175.0.0.0.2.0     ---
image/editor/gimp           0.5.11-0.151.0.1           ---

# pkg freeze
NAME               VERSION            DATE            COMMENT
image/editor/gimp  2.6.10-0.175.3.0.0.26.0:20150705T202845Z 15 Feb 2017 23:01:02 CET None