Bug#776435: apt: Package install with apt preferences won't follow dependencies for release
Package: apt
Version: 0.9.7.9+deb7u6
Severity: wishlist
Dear Maintainer,
With "apt-get install -t", a package and all its dependencies are
installed from the given release. There seems to be no way to achieve
the same behavior with apt preferences. While it's possible to specify
a glob or regexp for package names in apt preferences, any dependent
packages that don't match won't be installed from the given
release. The use case for this functionality is in systems managed by
configuration management software (e.g. puppet), where it's much more
straightforward to specify behavior in a configuration file than via
flags to a specific command.
For example, I need the newer functionality of the version of
syslog-ng in wheezy backports. With the following apt_preferences file:
> Package: syslog-ng*
> Pin: release n=wheezy-backports
> Pin-Priority: 990
>
"apt-get install syslog-ng" gives this error:
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
> requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
> distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
> or been moved out of Incoming.
> The following information may help to resolve the situation:
>
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
> syslog-ng : Depends: syslog-ng-mod-mongodb but it is not going to be
> installed
> E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
>From "apt-get install syslog-ng-mod-mongodb", the issue is this:
> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
> syslog-ng-mod-mongodb : Depends: libmongo-client0 (>= 0.1.6) but
> 0.1.5-1+deb7u1 is to be installed
This is because libmongo-client0 doesn't match the glob "syslog-ng*"
in the preferences file.
However, "apt-get -t wheezy-backports install syslog-ng" correctly
installs all the dependencies from backports.
-- Package-specific info:
-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --
-- (no /etc/apt/sources.list present) --
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.8
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 3.2.65-vs2.3.2.17-beng (SMP w/16 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii debian-archive-keyring 2014.3~deb7u1
ii gnupg 1.4.12-7+deb7u6
ii libapt-pkg4.12 0.9.7.9+deb7u6
ii libc6 2.13-38+deb7u6
ii libgcc1 1:4.7.2-5
ii libstdc++6 4.7.2-5
apt recommends no packages.
Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn apt-doc <none>
ii aptitude 0.6.8.2-1
ii dpkg-dev 1.16.15
ii python-apt 0.8.8.2
ii xz-utils 5.1.1alpha+20120614-2
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/cron.daily/apt [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'/etc/cron.daily/apt'
-- no debconf information
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