Bug#490755: live-helper: correctness problems with package selection

[jcrofts at pobox.com (James Crofts)]

Subject: live-helper: correctness problems with package selection
Package: live-helper
Version: live-helper_1.0~a46-2
Severity: normal

*** Please type your report below this line ***
"lh_clean --purge" does not seem to remove all package selection state 
information in all cases

I'm using two chroot_local-packageslists in my build tree, cryptonas and 
cryptonas-devel:
----------
# LH: cryptonas-devel

#include <cryptonas>
subversion
strace
ssh
vim
nano
less
lynx
sysklogd
w3m
screen
elinks

----------
## LH: cryptonas

util-linux
grub
parted
dmsetup
perl
tar
bash
coreutils
module-init-tools
ifupdown
busybox
usbutils
pciutils
discover
hdparm
binutils
debconf
sysutils
stunnel4
samba
#Apache was breaking the build before work started on the Debian Live 
changeover. FIXME: re-integrate
apache2
hashalot
python-clearsilver
python-cherrypy
python-configobj
python-central
super
dosfstools
cryptsetup
python-m2crypto
## support for file systems
e2tools
e2fsprogs
xfsprogs
hfsutils
jfsutils
cryptobox-server
## ntfs-3g is not in etch

----------

I performed the following series of non-interactive builds; in each case 
"lh_clean --purge" was run
before beginning the next build:
* LH_PACKAGES_LISTS="standard cryptonas-devel", LH_APT_SECURE="enabled" 
==> ~155MB image, correct set
of packages present
* LH_PACKAGES_LISTS="minimal cryptonas-devel", LH_APT_SECURE="enabled" 
==> ~139MB image, correct set of
packages
* LH_PACKAGES_LISTS="minimal cryptonas", LH_APT_SECURE="disabled" ==> 
~139MB image, incorrect set of
packages (for example, subversion was still present)
I tried again: * LH_PACKAGES_LISTS="minimal cryptonas", 
LH_APT_SECURE="disabled" ==> ~139MB image,
incorrect set of packages (for example, subversion was still present)

At this point, I renamed 
config/chroot_local-packageslists/cryptonas-devel to cnas-devel.bkp, ran
lh_clean --purge, and built again using the following settings:
* LH_PACKAGES_LISTS="minimal cryptonas", LH_APT_SECURE="enabled", 
LH_APT_SECURE="enabled" ==> ~121MB
image, correct set of packages present, specifically excluding subversion

 From this I conclude that some very-not-obvious package selection state 
information is sometimes being
maintained by the
live-helper build system that isn't being removed by "lh_clean --purge". 
Having LH_APT_SECURE="disabled"
seems to play a role in causing the problem also.


I'm using apt-cacher version 1.5.3 (debian package) to speed my "live 
system" builds.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-6-686
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)