Hi,
On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 11:45:23AM +0200, Baptiste BEAUPLAT wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:56:22 +0200 =?utf-8?q?Martin-=C3=89ric_Racine?=
> <martin-eric.racine@iki.fi> wrote:
> > The --fix-policy option is not documented in the apt-get man page.
>
> Please consider applying the following patch that documents the
> --fix-policy option.
The problem with this option and hence the documentation is that
"policy" is a very bad word here. I said on IRC then I mentioned
& explained that option that it is 'apt-speak', but I meant that this is
something only the code & debug messages use – and even those aren't
uniformly using it as the code calls these dependencies also "important"
(vs. "critical"). In the code this makes sort of sense, but I wouldn't
like to expose a user to the notion of "important" as we use that word
for yet more other confusing things (which is probably why the code
isn't using it all the time either).
From a user point of view "policy" refers to apt_preferences, at least
that is what we have taught them via "apt{-cache,} policy" for years and
the code happily uses it in that sense everywhere as well.
A --fix-policy suggests hence it does something with apt_preferences
which it doesn't as the "configured policy" there is not at all about
Recommends/Suggests.
So, instead of documenting, I would like to "remove" this option:
The functionality as-is is not that great as it is all-or-nothing which
is rarely useful. I would prefer a command which will act on given
packages instead (and only if non are given on all) with a more sensible
name.
Sadly I have no idea how to call it.
I would have called it 'reinstall' as that is sort-of what the code
does… but that should make it obvious that I shouldn't be naming things.
(Famous last words: On the upside, the code for that shouldn't be hard)
Sidenote: "configured policy" suggests there is something you can
configure far above "install recommends". More like "install recommends
if they are related to bluetooth, not related to gnome and included in
the last stable release" – that would be a handy policy sometimes, but
I don't see us getting there any time soon. And even then --fix-policy
would need a few changes….
Beste regards
David Kalnischkies
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