Bug 208532: dpkg --forget-old-unavail does not work at all

[Max Bowsher <maxb1@ukf.net>]

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Hi, I'd like to call attention to a specific bug which seems fairly
bite-size in nature, and has possibly gone unfixed only due to being
hidden amongst the many other bugs in the BTS

URL: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=208532

The ultra-short summary of this bug is:

dpkg leaves 'Architecture' fields in /var/lib/dpkg/status on purge,
which causes the 'informative installed' check during
- --forget-old-unavail processing to always be true.
Therefore, no packages are ever forgotten.


There's already a patch in the BTS, which in summary does:

lib/database.c:informative():
  Ignore architecture when deducing informative-ness.

src/processarc.c:process_archive():
src/remove.c:removal_bulk():
  Blank some additional fields.


Please could a dpkg maintainer apply the patch, or comment on
how the patch needs to be improved before it can be applied?

Thanks!

Max.
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