>>>>> "Joost" == Joost Kooij <joost@topaz.mdcc.cx> writes:
Joost> On Thu, Jul 12, 2001 at 09:52:46AM -0400, John Covici wrote:
>> I just did apt-get update before doing the upgrade -- how could they
>> be out of date?
Joost> If you do a "dselect-upgrade" with apt-get, it will use the
Joost> dpkg available packages database.
Bullshit. (Sorry, but I even did an strace on apt-get dselect-upgrade
just now to be sure, and nowhere does it access
/var/lib/dpkg/available).
It *will* use dselect's package status file for checking which
packages should be installed, but it always does this anyway (both
apt-get upgrade and apt-get dselect-upgrade open /var/lib/dpkg/status,
according to strace).
Joost> Apt normally uses its own available packages database, and
Joost> does not use the dpkg database. The dpkg available
Joost> database must also be kept up to date, but there is no
Joost> "apt-get dselect-update" for that. I think that apt-get
Joost> should do this on every regular "apt-get update", because
Joost> it should keep the dpkg available packages list in sync
Joost> with the user's expectations.
As I said, that's bullshit. You're right that dpkg's available file
needs to be up to date... but only for dselect and for manual browsing
(do that quite often myself). dpkg itself doesn't use it AFAIK.
You do the updating via "dselect update", but I should think that you
known that.
Bye, J
PS: I wouldn't have reacted so strongly if a) you didn't walk around
here with an aura of "I *always* know what I'm saying" and b) there
hadn't been someone stating that you were one of the most
knowledgeable people on this list. Sorry, but those factors just
*call* for a "cutting down to size once in a while".
--
Jürgen A. Erhard (juergen.erhard@gmx.net, jae@users.sourceforge.net)
My WebHome: http://members.tripod.com/Juergen_Erhard
Linux - Free PC Unix (http://www.linux.org)
"It's not apathy: It's zen!" -- Joe Mayer
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