Re: explanation of first column "v" is hiding

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 01:01:59PM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> # man dpkg-query
> ...
>               Desired action:
>                 u = Unknown
>                 i = Install

> v   lightdm-greeter                  -

I'm guessing it means "virtual".  Let's see:

unicorn:~$ apt-cache show lightdm-greeter
N: Can't select versions from package 'lightdm-greeter' as it is purely virtual
N: No packages found

Yeah, seems likely.

P.S. If we're complaining about the lack of documentation for the cryptic
output of the Debian tool set, can we say some words about aptitude?
Seriously.

           This command searches for packages that require or conflict with
           the given package. It displays a sequence of dependencies leading
           to the target package, along with a note indicating the installed
           state of each package in the dependency chain:

               $ aptitude why kdepim
               i   nautilus-data Recommends nautilus
               i A nautilus      Recommends desktop-base (>= 0.2)
               i A desktop-base  Suggests   gnome | kde | xfce4 | wmaker
               p   kde           Depends    kdepim (>= 4:3.4.3)

What do *any* of those column-ish letters mean?  I can guess "i", maybe,
but not "A" or "p".  (I might have guessed "purged" for "p", but that
doesn't seem to fit the picture being painted by the example, which is
of a system that *does* have KDE installed.  In any case, why should I
have to guess these things?)