Re: Bug#508058: Simultaneous removal emacs21 and install emacs22 -> no working /usr/bin/emacs
reassign 508058 dpkg 1.14.23
thanks
On 2008-12-07 16:39 +0100, Lionel Elie Mamane wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 07, 2008 at 04:07:53PM +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:
>> Yes, update-alternatives does not play very nicely if you remove the
>> preferred alternative. Or at least that used to be the case --
>> there have been several improvements in dpkg 1.14.x, and I don't
>> know which dpkg version actually did the upgrade.
>
> It seems it was version 1.14.23 in both cases, which suggests the bug
> is still there and current.
Okay, reassigning to that version then.
>>> I'm fairly sure I did not myself set the status to manual before.
>
>> Well, someone or something must have done it anyway.
>
> My hunch is that this is what happens when the preferred or the last
> alternative is removed or something like that.
In this case the alternative should just disappear completely. And the
sequence of events was the following on both of your machines:
1) emacs22 is unpacked
2) emacs21 is removed (purged, actually)
3) emacs22 is configured
This is the normal case in apt-based installs, and the emacs alternative
should have been removed in step 2) and restored in step 3).
And this is what happened when I tried to reproduce the bug in a chroot
where I installed the `emacs' metapackage from etch and upgraded it to
lenny. So I can't reproduce your problem. :-|
>>> I would have had any reason to do that, having only one emacs
>>> installed.
>
>> We all do stupid things for no good reason from time to time (no offense
>> intended).
>
> No offence, taken, but I took back the file
> /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/emacs from a backup for one of the machines
> (quorn), and here is its content (indented):
>
> auto
> /usr/bin/emacs
> emacs.1.gz
> /usr/share/man/man1/emacs.1.gz
>
> /usr/bin/emacs21
> 24
> /usr/share/man/man1/emacs.1emacs21.gz
> /usr/bin/emacs21-x
> 24
> /usr/share/man/man1/emacs.1emacs21.gz
>
> So it was truly in "auto" mode.
Okay. I'm at my wits' end for now, handing this over to the dpkg
developers.
Cheers,
Sven
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