Re: aptitude "check" command?

[Celejar <celejar@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:09:19 -0400
Greg Folkert <greg@gregfolkert.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-04-16 at 08:53 -0500, Default User wrote:
> > Hello.
> > 
> > For Etch, I am using aptitude, rather than apt-get.  These seem to be
> > the equivalent commands:
> > 
> > apt-get clean         =  aptitude clean
> > apt-get autoclean     =  aptitude autoclean
> > apt-get update        =  aptitude update
> > apt-get upgrade       =  aptitude upgrade
> > apt-get dist-upgrade  =  aptitude dist-upgrade
> > 
> > So what is the aptitude equivalent of apt-get "check"?  
> > 
> > (And an extra cookie for your browser if you can explain when to use
> > clean and when to use autoclean . . . )
> 
> clean vs. autoclean
> 
> clean == remove all cached files, including ones that may be ready for
> install. This basically remove all *.deb files in:
>         /var/cache/apt/archives 
> 
> autoclean == removes all but the "installed or most recent candidate to
> be installed". IOW if you happen to have 83 versions of the "zsh"
> package in /var/cache/apt/archives/ it reduces it to either the one
> installed if it is the most recent, or the most recent candidate to
> install. This is used as a "house-cleaning" operation.

IIUC, this isn't quite correct. From 'man apt-get':

>  autoclean
>           Like clean, autoclean clears out the local repository of retrieved
>           package files. The difference is that it only removes package files
>           that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely useless. This
>           allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without it
>           growing out of control. The configuration option
>           APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being
>           erased if it is set to off.

So apparently any non current package file will be removed, even if
it's the one that's installed. This could happen when you haven't done
an update for a while, or if you've removed from your source list a
repo from which you've installed packages. In such cases (IIUC)
autoclean will leave you with no versions of the package file in the
cache (not necessarily a problem).

[snip]

> greg, greg@gregfolkert.net

Celejar