Retrieving _FULL_ installed packages list, dpkg --get-selections

[joost witteveen <joostje@debian.org>]

Hi,

menu has been using `dpkg --get-selections' for some time to get a
list of installed pacakges.

But in Bug#62086, Adrian Bunk notices that menu doesn't generate
menu entries for files that are only markt to be deinstalled by
dselect, but never were really deinstalled.

It turns out that the output of dpkg --get-selections is identical
for real deinstalled packages, and for those that are marked for
deinstall.

Is there any way to get full packages names of packages that are
actually installed ('dpkg -l' doesn't work, as it cuts of package
names that are too long).

Bug#62086:
> Package: menu
> Version: 2.1.5-3
> Severity: normal
> 
> 
> update-menus doesn't recognize packages with "Status: deinstall ok
> installed" that are still installed, but marked for removal. In my case,
> the marking "deinstall" happened once in dselect, but since I do no longer
> use dselect but apt, this usually doesn't have any effect.

Or should I just ignore this (i.e., say that the user should mark the 
packages as "installed" again)?


As an example, Mosaic is fully installed on my system, but I just
marked it for deinstall; ae is fully uninstalled (but not purged)

$ dpkg --get-selections| egrep '^(ae|Mosaic)'
Mosaic                                          deinstall
ae                                              deinstall

$ dpkg -l Mosaic ae | grep '^..  '
ri  Mosaic         2.7b5-8        Graphical WWW browser
rc  ae             962-25         Anthony's Editor -- a tiny full-screen edito


Thanks,
-- 
joostje