Re: Bug#167381: apt: DSelect::Clean "auto" -- deletes on hold, installed package's *.deb files.

[Jeff Sheinberg <jeffsh@localnet.com>]

Jason Gunthorpe writes:
 > 
 > On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, Jeff Sheinberg wrote:
 > 
 > > I don't see how you can refer to deleting an installed package's
 > > *.deb file as "sensible behavior".
 > 
 > There exists no apt command that will let you install the .deb, so it
 > is perfectly sensible to erase it.

I disagree with your assertion.

If I had put sendmail-8.12.6-6 on hold before I ran "dselect
update", "dselect select", "dselect install", then I would be in
exactly the same situation that I now have, which is,

    sendmail-8.12.6-7 is the available version in the Packages files
    sendmail-8.12.6-6 is installed using "dpkg --install" from
        /home/jeff/debian/sarge/repkgs/debs/sendmail_8.12.6-6_i386.deb
    sendmail-8.12.6-6 .deb file will get deleted from apt's cache
        after running "dselect install"

I have found a way to keep sendmail-8.12.6-6 .deb file from being
deleted from apt's cache,

    $ grep Clean- /etc/apt/apt.conf
    APT::Clean-Installed "off";     // "auto-cleanup non-downloadable" [on]

However, this approach may be too heavy a hammer, as it is not
clear to me whether old versions of newly installed packages will
continue to be deleted from apt's package cache with
"APT::Clean-Installed "off"".

"It is not clear to me" because testing/sarge hasn't updated any
of my installed packages for the past 3 days.

-- 
Jeff Sheinberg