Re: dpkg-query - package "un"packed, no version ???

[Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>]

On 9/2/13, Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 7:33 AM, Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> wrote:
>>
>> Anyone know why I get this:
>>
>> $ dpkg-query --list vim-athena
>> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
>> |
>> Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
>> |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
>> ||/ Name                Version        Architecture   Description
>> +++-===================-==============-==============-============================================
>> un  vim-athena          <none>                        (no description
>> available)
>
> What's the problem?
>
> u means that the action is unknown
> and
> n means that it's not installed

What does "unknown action" mean?

And why is the output of the command different that, eg:
$ dpkg-query --list vim-dbg
dpkg-query: no packages found matching vim-dbg

There are fundamentally two different outputs, and therefore somewhere
in my system there is a different status of some sort between these
two packages. I am wanting to understand what that difference is, and
how it happened - why there is a difference at all. For example, I
don't know how to use pinning, so I have not done any apt pinning, but
using pinning, from what I've "overheard" on the lists/net is that a
status change would happen for a pinned package, somwhere in the
apt/dpkg "system".

How come I have "unknown action" status for package vim-athena?

Thank you
Zenaan