Re: dpkg -l does not report all packages?

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Colin Watson wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Sep 21, 2001 at 12:23:19AM -0700, Erik Steffl wrote:
> >   dpkg and grep-available only report kernel-source packages up to 2.4.5
> > (which is what I have installed), even though I just did apt-get update:
> 
> 'apt-get update' doesn't update dpkg's available file. Use 'dselect
> update' instead, which does 'apt-get update' and then merges it with
> dpkg's records.
> 
> Also, 'dpkg -l' looks in dpkg's status file, which doesn't necessarily
> record all uninstalled packages unless you use dselect on a regular
> basis. It'll record installed packages reliably, though.

  thanks for explanation,

  is there any way to have correct info about system (installed and
available packages and their status) without using deselect?

  I thought that dselect is just one of many front-ends and that the
underlying functionality is provided by lower level tools and thus
basically same for all frontends (at least the basics - like status of
packages etc...).

	erik