Re: What is the difference?

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:59:30 +0100, Hans-J. Ullrich wrote:

> I wondered what is the difference between
> 
> a) dpkg --get-selections "*" > mylist.txt and
> b) dpkg --get-selections > mylist.txt
> 
> I get different results, but the asterix is a joker, and the results
> should be the same. The manual did not mention the asterix, and I
> suppose (as many sites told using the asterix), option a) is orphaned.
> 
> Am I correct?

sm01@stt008:~$ dpkg --get-selections "*" > mylist.txt
sm01@stt008:~$ dpkg --get-selections > mylist2.txt
sm01@stt008:~$ diff mylist.txt mylist2.txt
791d790
< popularity-contest				purge

man dpkg:

--get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
Get  list  of  package  selections, and write it to stdout. Without a
pattern, packages marked with state purge will not be shown.

So, in b) as you did not provide a pattern (*) you don't get the "purged" 
ones :-?

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón