apt generates an incorrect /var/lib/dpkg/available

[Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.0.7

I'm using dselect with apt as the access method. Today I went into dselect
and selected Update, and apt ran. Then, I went into Select, and when I was
done, dselect gave me a conflict resolution screen, saying that it wanted to
remove w-bassman becuase procps conflicted with w-bassman (<= 1.0-2). Well,
I maintain w-bassman, and I knew this conflicts was wrong, it should be 
(<< 1.0-2). I looked at the new procps.deb:

root@kite:~joey>dpkg --info /var/mirror/debian/all/procps_1.2.7-1.deb |grep w-bassman
 Conflicts: watch, libproc-dev (<< 1:1.2.6-2), w-bassman (<< 1.0-2)

Ok there. Next I took a look at my mirror's Packages.gz file:

root@kite:~joey>zgrep w-bassman /var/mirror/debian/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 
Conflicts: watch, libproc-dev (<< 1:1.2.6-2), w-bassman (<< 1.0-2)
...

Ok there. Then I took a look at the available and status files:

root@kite:~joey>dpkg -s procps
Package: procps
Status: install ok installed
Priority: required
Section: base
Installed-Size: 199
Maintainer: Craig Small <csmall@debian.org>
Version: 1:1.2.7-1
Replaces: watch
Provides: watch
Depends: libc6, ncurses3.4
Recommends: psmisc
Conflicts: watch, libproc-dev (<< 1:1.2.6-2), w-bassman (<< 1.0-2)
...

Ok there..

root@kite:~joey>dpkg --print-avail procps
Package: procps
Priority: required
Section: base
Installed-Size: 199
Maintainer: Craig Small <csmall@debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Version: 1:1.2.7-1
Replaces: watch
Provides: watch
Depends: libc6, ncurses3.4
Recommends: psmisc
Conflicts: watch, libproc-dev (<= 1:1.2.6-2), w-bassman (<= 1.0-2)
                                                         ^^
Woah, where did this <= come from?

I know that apt modifies the available file, and so I tried changing my
access method in dselect to dpkg-mountable, and re-running Update to see
what happened. What happened is, dpkg --print-avail got fixed to use 
(<< 1.0-2) like it should. I went back to apt, and ran Update again, and
it changed back to (<= 1.0-2). I tried this on 2 other machines, both 
using apt, and saw the same bug on both.

Also, interestingly, if I forced dselect to keep w-bassman and upgrade
procps, and went to Install, apt happily does this. I'd expect that if it
really thinks they conflict, it would refust to put the system into an
inconsitent state.

-- 
see shy jo


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