apt (intentionally?) brain dead?

[Wolfgang Pfeiffer <roto@gmx.net>]

Hi All

Once upon, IIRC, there were times when apt did very intelligently
automatically what I have to do now myself: When I tried to install a
package, apt-get/aptitude calculated the dependencies on other
packages for the one I wanted to install and then installed the whole
bunch of packages necessary for the installation of the one i needed.


It seems times have changed: Either apt/aptitude is braindead and on the brink
of becoming unusable, or, alternatively, the Debian folks
intentionally changed the software in a way where apt-get does not do
any more what it did some time ago. In the latter case the bug (again:
It's not a bug: I call it brain dead) would be an intentionally
designed feature.

Please look at this (for better readability I slightly edited the following):


[root@ 19:04:02]# apt-get --simulate install gconf2                                    
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... 0%
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  gconf2: Depends: gconf2-common (= 2.10.1-6) but it is not going to be installed
          Conflicts: libgconf2-4 (< 2.10.1-3) but 2.10.1-1 is to be installed
  gnome-core: Depends: bug-buddy (>= 2.10.0) but 2.8.0-3 is to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).
[root@ 19:17:06]#

 
[root@ 19:17:06]# apt-get --simulate install gconf2 bug-buddy gconf2-common libgconf2-4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gconf2-common
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bug-buddy gconf2 libgconf2-4
3 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 173 not upgraded.
Inst gconf2-common (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable) [gnome-core ]
Inst libgconf2-4 [2.10.1-1] (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable) [gnome-core ]
Inst bug-buddy [2.8.0-3] (2.10.0-3 Debian:unstable)
Inst gconf2 [2.10.1-1] (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable)
Conf gconf2-common (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable)
Conf libgconf2-4 (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable)
Conf bug-buddy (2.10.0-3 Debian:unstable)
Conf gconf2 (2.10.1-6 Debian:unstable)
[root@ 19:17:54]#


Again: Is it brain dead software or a feature?

Or what did I miss?

Thanks in anticipation

Best Regards
Wolfgang

-- 
Wolfgang Pfeiffer
http://profiles.yahoo.com/wolfgangpfeiffer

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