Bug#266551: [apt-get] --download-only option is unintuitive to use
severity 266551 wishlist
merge 266551 82738
thanks
On Wed, Aug 18, 2004 at 12:09:56PM +0300, Jari Aalto wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 0.5.27
> Severity: normal
>
> Want to peek a package.deb, but it's no longer in apt's cache.
> You decide to downlad the package:
>
> apt-get -d install package.deb
>
> Apt starts, processes, and tells
>
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
> 1 not fully installed or removed.
> Need to get 0B of archives.
>
> Hm, that was quick. Let's peek /var/cache/apt/archives. No? Not there?
Before that, it would have printed a message telling you that the package
was already installed.
> PROPOSAL
>
> If user requested --download-only option to get the package to disk,
> it is unintuitive to have to be forced to add yet another otpion
> --reinstall to have the actual download to start.
>
> Apt could check if package is no longer in cache and fetch it
> as necessary. User expects option --download-only to mean "request to
> get the package to _disk_ (whatever means necessary)".
The --download-only option has the semantics "download everything necessary
to complete the specified operations". It is not a general facility for
downloading debs.
For that, use 'aptitude download'.
A request to have a similar feature in apt-get has already been filed,
merging.
--
- mdz
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