Bug#70013: apt: ignores "-c=/other/config/file" parameter when no sources.list present

[Jens Benecke <jens@pinguin.conetix.de>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.3.19
Severity: normal

I have two sources.list files: sources.stable and sources.unstable.
Whenever I _need_ some woody package I try sources.unstable and see what
else would be upgraded, and then decide. For that I have set bash aliases,
with proper parameters.

The trouble is that apt-get ignores the proposed "-c=other-config-file"
option. Like this:

	ds9:/etc/apt# apt-get install fmt
	E: Opening /etc/apt/sources.list - ifstream::ifstream (2 Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden)
	E: The list of sources could not be read.

(which is normal, since only *stable and *unstable exist.) But:

	ds9:/etc/apt# apt-get -c=/etc/apt/sources.stable install fmt
	E: Opening /etc/apt/sources.list - ifstream::ifstream (2 Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden)
	E: The list of sources could not be read. 

sources.stable is present and readable, and it still cannot read them. Also
if an empty sources.list exists, it will ignore the -c parameter and
refuse to read the additional source lists.


I suppose not working without a *.list file is a "feature", according to
the man page - but ignoring the -c options should not be.


-- System Information
Debian Release: 2.2
Kernel Version: Linux server 2.2.16-9mdk #1 Wed Aug 2 13:30:35 CEST 2000 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6          2.1.3-10       GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
ii  libstdc++2.10  2.95.2-13      The GNU stdc++ library