[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: aptitude --mind-your-own-business option?



Florian Kulzer wrote:

On Sun, Dec 03, 2006 at 09:24:58 -0800, Marc Shapiro wrote:

[...]

In a previous post on this thread (or one of the many similar threads now going strong) I said that aptitude was working fine for me in my brand new Etch install. This is MOSTLY true. It works fine from the command line, which is how I use it. But after several of the other posts I decided to look at the interactive interface. They DO NOT work the same!

From the command line:


# aptitude upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Reading task descriptions... Done Building tag database... Done The following packages have been kept back:
openoffice.org-java-common python-pygame thunderbird
The following packages will be upgraded:
libssl0.9.8 openssl
2 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 3720kB of archives. After unpacking 164kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
Abort.

3 packages held back
2 packages upgraded
0 packages deleted

This, I have no problem with, but...

From the interactive interface aptitude wants to:
  Delete         1 package due to unmet dependancies
  Hold           5 packages
  Install       25 packages
  Auto Install 172 packages
  Remove         7 packages

Most of the 25 packages to be installed are Gnome related. I do NOT use Gnome! I have NEVER installed Gnome (or KDE) on this system. Cleaning out all of the cruft from Gnome and KDE from my Sarge system is what prompted me to do a clean install for Etch in the first place. I don't want to start this all over again.

Why the difference between the two modes? It is not, apparently, due to "Suggests' or 'Recommends' since they are listed seperately in the interactive mode and are not among the packages to be installed (at least not the regular installed packages, I have not check for them in the 172 packages to be auto-installed).

How do I get the interactive mode to act the same as the command line? If I deselect the packages that I do not want will they stay that way? Will aptitude later decide that other gnome packages (and their millions of dependancies) should be installed?

Should I just stick with the command line since I am comfortable with it and it seems to do what I want without having to tweak it?

I am beginning to see why aptitude drives some people crazy. I can think
of a few things which might explain this behavior:

- "U" in interactive mode is like "dist-upgrade" on the command line.
 You could check if "aptitude --simulate dist-upgrade" on the command
 line would lead to the same actions. "U" in interactive mode will
 cause aptitude to try upgrading the three packages which have been
 kept back from "upgrade" on the command line. I agree with you that
 this should not pull in 25 Gnome packages (and 127 dependencies),
 though.
No. That caused the command line mode to want to install two additional packages and upgrade a few more, but that is all.

- Do you alternate between running as root and running with "sudo
 aptitude"? That causes confusion with the configuration file.
No.

- Maybe aptitude remembers something it wanted to do earlier. Does
 "Cancel Pending Actions" in interactive mode or "aptitude keep-all" on
 the command line restore sane behavior?
After doing 'aptitude keep-all' on the command line there was no change in what the command-line mode wanted to do, but the interactive mode decided that there was actually NOTHING to do, not even what the command line mode was going to do. I then did an update in the interactive mode and it decided that it wanted to upgrade 5 packages (including the three that the command line mode was holding) and automatically install 2 packages (as dependancies of the upgraded packages). This now brings 'aptitude dist-upgrade' from the command line into line with what the interactive mode wants to do. The desire for a massive Gnome install has gone away.

Is there a way to get the interactive mode to act as an 'upgrade' and not a 'dist-upgrade'?

--
Marc Shapiro

No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
What?! Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here.
Boom. Sooner or later ... boom!

- Susan Ivanova: B5 - Grail



Reply to: