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Re: holding back buggy packages



On Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:14:16 +0200
Florian Kulzer <florian.kulzer+debian@icfo.es> wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:27:57 -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > A common use case with aptitude (interactive mode ) / apt-listbugs is:
> > 
> > a) order an upgrade
> > b) aptitude downloads packages
> > c) apt-listbugs reports some serious bug in a package
> > d) I decide not to install / upgrade the problematic package, after
> > reading the short bug description, or looking it up in the BTS
> > e) hit 'n' to abort the installation / upgrade
> > f) search for the package via something like
> > '^first-few-letters-of-package', and keep looking until I find the
> > right one.
> > g) hold with '='
> > h) reorder the upgrade
> > 
> > Is there any way to automate / consolidate steps e-h?  IOW, I'd like
> > some simple way to just tell aptitude: "Okay, don't install the buggy
> > package, so just redo the upgrade / installation without it"?
> 
> This is not a dramatic improvement, but a bit quicker, I think:
> 
> a)-e) as above
> f) hit 'g' to see the actions preview again
> g) Scroll to the buggy packages in the actions preview, where they are
>    easy to find, and use 'F' to forbid upgrades to the buggy versions.
>    (You can also use '=' to hold if you prefer; I like forbid-version
>    better because it means that I do not have to remember to remove the
>    hold once a newer, hopefully fixed, version is available.)
> h) press 'g' again to go ahead with the upgrade of all other packages

You're right, that *is* better, and forbid-version is also a good idea.

> I am not even sure if I would like an automatic hold of all buggy
> packages, because many of the serious/critical bugs reported by
> apt-listbugs are irrelevant to me in practice (e.g. a package fails to
> build on an architecture that I do not use, a policy violation that has
> no effect on me, a file overwrite conflict that I can easily fix myself,
> etc.). As for the packages that I actually do want to hold back, I can

Absolutely.  That's why I wrote that I only decide to skip upgrading
after checking the bug description, and sometimes the BTS.

> normally change their settings very quickly just by scrolling through
> the actions preview and hitting 'F' where appropriate.

Thanks much for the suggestions.  I still think that it would be nice,
though, to have a simple way of just telling aptitude to skip some or
all packages flagged by apt-listbugs and continue the upgrade.

Celejar
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