Re: apt-get vs. aptitude
Hi,
There used to be a very similar discussion on the Debian Devel mailing
list...
On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 11:46:41AM +0400, Dmitrii Kashin wrote:
> Tom H <tomh0665@gmail.com> writes:
>
> >> Oh I have fond memories of aptitude breaking my system. Once it
> >> suggested me to remove most of my system, including apt, I thought it
> >> was going to upgrade it so I confirmed it. I had to reinstall apt from
> >> the debian packages website.
> >>
> >> In this new installation I gave it another try but when it started
> >> suggesting very weird plans (like remove all gnome packages) I happily
> >> went back to apt and never looked back.
...
> > If aptitude's such a destructive package, why is it still in the repositories?
>
> I think that aptitude works quite well for the easiest cases. And it is
> the only instrument I know which allow to see dependency chains. It was
> dselect some time ago which could do it too as I know, but now it seems
> to be dead. BTW, it provides with good capabilities for searching
> through packages.
Also aptitude is a nice browser to see available package interactively.
dpkg (1.17.1) was uploaded on 28 Jul 2013. So calling dselect dead is
not correct. (I agree the days for the dselect popularity is gone but it
is not dead.)
> There're quite good beginnings in this project as you can see. So it's
> popular and is in the repository.
Aptitude is still a good interactive tool.
But neither the "Release Notes" or "Debian Reference" mention aptutide as
the primary tool for the system upgrade any more. There is a reason
behind this change.
Also, in "2.2.1. apt-get / apt-cache vs. aptitude"(*) of Debian Reference,
I have note to address this issue as:
| Although the aptitude command comes with rich features such as its
| enhanced package resolver, this complexity has caused (or may still
| causes) some regressions such as Bug #411123, Bug #514930, and Bug
| #570377. In case of doubt, please use the apt-get and apt-cache commands
| over the aptitude command.
(*) http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_literal_apt_get_literal_literal_apt_cache_literal_vs_literal_aptitude_literal
Recent "Release Notes" only uses apt-get and apt-cache in it.
Osamu
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