Eddy wrote:
> Steve Lamb a écrit le 04/02/05 23:50 :
> The OP said he didn't like aptitude's behaviour.
> Why do *you* have a problem with that ? You must have one though because
> I can't see why you would start PEBKACking him otherwise.
Because he stated that it was for random reasons when the reasons are
clearly explained. That is just pure FUD because he has some irrational
dislike for aptitude and is spreading it here. Pardon me if I dislike
irrational FUD being spewed and respond accordingly.
> Seriously, I admit there probably is an explanation to the aptitude
> behaviour.
Yup, chances are installing one of those two packages causes a dependancy
cascade which updates others to the point where they are no longer needed and
automatically removed.
> I haven't got a problem with that but I just don't see why I
> should bother trying to understand aptitude when apt-get does the job I
> want.
That's fine. That is quite different than saying something completely BS
about aptitude.
> As for your assertion that "aptitude does tell you exactly why it is
> removing packages", well it simply is not true. At least not always. And
> when it does it's not always correct.
> (Again aptitude's doc probably provides explanations but don't pretend
> that those informations are provided by aptitude itself.)
It is.
> Example 1.
> I start aptitude and type "g" to see what it plans to do.
> It wants to remove vim as an "unused" package. As far as unused packages
> go, I use this one everyday. Well let's read further... "It was
> installed automatically". Well that's a lie : I installed it on pupose
> but I didn't do it with aptitude. I can accept this kind of behaviour
> but I will certainly not consider the message displayed as correct.
That's PEBKAC. Simply mark it + and that goes away. Not all that hard.
In fact you can get rid of it by hitting + on the "installed software".
Personally I do that then M on the libraries.
> Example 2
> It will remove libgnutls11-dev because it has 4 missing dependencies.
> Well apt-get installing those show that they are installed with the
> latest versions; apt-get install libgnutls11-dev tells the same.
Are you sure? What does aptitude say when you trace the dependacies back?
You know, hit d, see what is missing, check to see what it has in its
database. You /are/ aware that apt-get and aptitude *do not use the same
database*, right? Did you do an aptitude update first?
> Example 3
> It will install festival. Why ? It sure doesn't say and I really don't
> need it. The same goes for a lot of other packages.
aptitude installs recommends. Hit r and it will tell you what is
dependant or recommending that package. Alternatively hit the options and
turn off install recommends. For the record festival is recommended by
screader and education-music, do you have either of those installed?
> I am not saying there is no reason to do it (and it is probably due to
> the options regarding dependencies) but do not tell me that aptitude
> gives the reason for its actions.
r to see what is dependant or recommending a package isn't telling you?
There's 2 possibilities here.
a: You're ignorant of that command which means you haven't read the help
aptitude provides. PEBKAC.
b: You're ignoring that command and how to use it. PEBKAC.
> Example 4
> It wants to remove alsa, anacron and lots of other basic stuff and once
> again does not provide any reason.
Did you hit d to see what was broken to that point? Where the listed as
automatically installed? One or the other will tell you. If you choose to
ignore the help and/or the output of said commands the problem is yours.
For the record I have not read the docs on aptitude, only the help
provided with aptitude. So don't you dare blather that aptitude doesn't tell
you. It does.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
PGP Key: 8B6E99C5 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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