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

[Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net> wrote:
> On 9/2/13, 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)
>
> Actually I misread the status, that's u and n, not U and n, ie
> "unknown" and "not-installed".
>
> Further example:
>
> $ dpkg-query --list chromium-browser-dbg 2>&1
> dpkg-query: no packages found matching chromium-browser-dbg
>
> Why don't I get this result, with vim-athena?
>
> Also:
> $ dpkg-query -s vim-athena 2>&1
> dpkg-query: package 'vim-athena' is not installed and no information
> is available

dpkg-query parses "/var/lib/dpkg/status".

Since vim-athena isn't installed, "-s" tells you that it's not installed.

Since chromium-browser-dbg isn't installed, "-l" tells you that it's not found.

AFAICT, the "un" output of "-l" for vim-athena is because it's listed
in the "Recommends" field of vim-common, so it's recognized as a
package.