Re: Bug#32888: apt removes base without asking too much

[Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>]

On Fri, Mar 05, 1999 at 03:41:21AM -0800, Chris Waters wrote:
> My unsolicited opinion:
> 
> 1.  Bug #32888 is a bug about removing the base package.  It should
> probably be reassigned to whatever package is the functional replacement
> for base, i.e. the one that causes apt to try to remove base.
> 
> 2.  The complaint that apt defaults to "--force-whatever" is:
> 
>   a) probably *not* a bug -- in most cases, with correctly designed
>   packages (and correctly designed replacements for obsolete packages),
>   it is correct and necessary behavior, as far as I can see.
 
I think you don't get it. "base" has been manually selected for removal,
there's no new package that conflicts with base so that apt marks base
automatically for removal. The same thing that is happening now with
base can happen (and has happenned) with _any_ other _essential_ package,
obsolete or not (say, bash). A user may accidentally mark for removal 
_any_ essential package, and apt will happily default to "Y" for the
critical question "You are going to remove essential packages. This may
totally hose the system. Are you sure you want to do this?" (I'm not sure
about the exact wording, but it's something like that) and happily
proceed to remove an _essential_ package just because the user hit
<ENTER>. That's a big nono.

It may happen again, with correctly designed packages, and there's no
point talking about replacements, as that may happen with any perfectly
functional, up-to-date, essential package that the user mistakenly marks 
for removal. --force-remove-essential by default is *not* correct and
necessary behavior. It's something that has to be carefully selected by a
knowingly system manager, the very few times that it becomes absolutely
necessary to replace an essential package (IIRC, two times in three years
and five releases. Is not that often, don't you think so?). If we want
apt to remove essential packages (and I'm not sure that's a wise move),
at least the _default_ answer should be No. The user will have to read
the question and enter "Yes<ENTER>" only after reading that his system
may be trashed by that simple action. 

>   b) a new bug, if it is a bug.  This is not the bug reported in #32888,
>   which is about the behavior of the base package, not apt.  So it needs
>   a new bug report.

That I may agree. Bug 32888 is the sum of two bugs, base wierdness and
apt dangerous defaults. Submitting two bugs reports is probably the wise
thing to do.

	Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi					   ezanardi@ull.es