[bug?] using "dpkg -B" to remove dictionaries-common

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Today's dictionaries-common upgrade broke, so I'd like to get back to
a sane state and try it again.  Currently the package is half-configured:

 $ dpkg-query -l dictionaries-common
 Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
 | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
 |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
 ||/ Name                   Version                Description
 +++-======================-======================-============================================================
 rF  dictionaries-common    1.5.17                 Common utilities for spelling dictionary tools

So I try to remove it:

 # dpkg -B --remove dictionaries-common
 dpkg: dependency problems prevent removal of dictionaries-common:
  aspell depends on dictionaries-common (>> 0.40).
  ispell depends on dictionaries-common.
  myspell-en-us depends on dictionaries-common (>= 0.10) | openoffice.org-updatedicts; however:
   Package dictionaries-common is to be removed.
   Package openoffice.org-updatedicts is not installed.
   Package dictionaries-common which provides openoffice.org-updatedicts is to be removed.
  ienglish-common depends on dictionaries-common (>= 1.10.4~).
  myspell-en-us depends on dictionaries-common (>= 0.10) | openoffice.org-updatedicts; however:
   Package dictionaries-common is to be removed.
   Package openoffice.org-updatedicts is not installed.
   Package dictionaries-common which provides openoffice.org-updatedicts is to be removed.
 dpkg: error processing dictionaries-common (--remove):
  dependency problems - not removing
 Errors were encountered while processing:
  dictionaries-common

I would have expected -B to cause those packages to be deconfigured.

Now I try to do it explicitly:

 # dpkg --deconfigure aspell
 dpkg: error: unknown option --deconfigure

Ah, right; that doesn't exist.  This is with dpkg master.  Ideas?
Jonathan