A Binions licence covers one whole major version line, so each upgrade is checked before it completes. When you upgrade a package to a higher major version than your licence covers, the install hook stops the upgrade cleanly — before anything on your host changes. This page explains what the gate does, what you see when it stops an upgrade, and the two ways forward.
Good to know. The gate only ever declines to install a newer major. It never deletes, migrates, or touches your data, config, or running daemons. If it stops, your host stays exactly as it was.
One licence — the set of 13 daemons — covers a single major version line. Buying for major 1 covers every release from 1.0.0 through the last 1.x.x, including all the minor feature additions and patch fixes in that line, at no extra cost. Moving up to the next major (for example 2.0.0) is a new entitlement, because a new major is where breaking changes and a re-licence apply.
To make sure you never end up running a major you are not licensed for, every daemon package carries a small install hook that runs a gate check as part of the upgrade. The check is simple and deterministic:
apt prints guidance with the two options below. Nothing is installed or changed.If you run an upgrade that would cross your licensed major boundary, the package install stops and apt reports the refusal along with what to do next. No daemon is restarted and no files are replaced — the newer major simply is not installed. You then choose one of two paths.
Pin the package to a version inside the major your licence covers, then hold it so a later apt upgrade will not try to move it again. Replace <name> with the daemon (for example logger or mailbox) and <your-major> with the major you are licensed for:
sudo apt install binions-<name>=<your-major>.x.x
sudo apt-mark hold binions-<name>The hold keeps the package on your supported major until you decide otherwise. You can lift it later with sudo apt-mark unhold binions-<name>.
If you want the new major, purchase the upgrade entitlement for your host from the customer portal, then run the upgrade again:
https://portal.binions.ioOnce your licence covers the new major, the gate sees a licensed major that is no longer lower than the package, and the upgrade completes normally.
Your data is safe either way. Whichever option you pick, the gate has already protected you from a half-applied, unlicensed major. It declines the install rather than rolling anything back, so there is nothing to undo and nothing to recover.