Re: debugging apt-get

[Tim Woodall <debianuser@woodall.me.uk>]

On Wed, 12 Oct 2022, Stefan Seefeld wrote:

> On Wednesday, 12 October 2022 at 01:10:06 UTC-4, tomas wrote:
>
> > Try doing "apt-cache policy Y", that might shed light on this.
>
> This reports
> ```
> Y:
> Installed: (none)
> Candidate: 1.0.3
> Version table:
>    1.0.3 500
>       500 <repo> focal/main amd64 Packages
>    1.0.1 500
>       500 <repo> focal/main amd64 Packages
> ```
>
> > > (I'm running on Ubuntu 20.04, using apt-get=2.0.6)
> > (Isn't there a Ubuntu mailing list, btw? They might be doing funny stuff
> > with their packaging which perhaps change the problem space)
>
> The repo is actually our own in-house repo (managed via artifactory).
> Are there any clear semantic rules spelled out in some document that govern what should happen ? I'm surprised that if my package "X" has specific and unambiguous dependencies on an existing package "Y", and that version exists in the repo, it should be installed. Am I missing something ?

In your original command you had X as a file on the commandline. Does it
work when X is in a repo?

I have my own repo and I've had no issues like this.

$ apt-mark showauto | grep dump
dump
$ apt-mark showmanual | grep backup
backup
$

Is there something strange about what release or architecture X thinks
it is in? Perhaps that is why apt won't autoinstall Y but Y can satisfy
X's dependencies.

This file has all the debugging options for apt:

/usr/share/doc/apt/examples/configure-index

-o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes might show something. (that's a guess,
I've not used this option)