Bug#193566: python-apt: depends on python (>= 2.1), python (<< 2.2), should depend on python2.1

[Randy Orrison <randy@orrison.com>]

Package: python-apt
Version: 0.5.4.3 (not installed)
Severity: normal



-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux evo 2.4.19-k7 #1 Tue Nov 19 03:01:13 EST 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB


I just did apt-get dist-upgrade on a mostly testing (slightly unstable)
system, and apt-listchanges and python-apt were removed.  Trying to
reinstall, I've found that python-apt won't install:


$ sudo apt-get install python-apt
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
  python-apt: Depends: python (< 2.2) but 2.2.2-6 is to be installed
E: Sorry, broken packages
$

So, it says it requires a version of python less than 2.2 to be
installed.  However:

$ dpkg -l | grep python2\\..\
ii  python2.1      2.1.3-18       An interactive object-oriented scripting lan
ii  python2.2      2.2.2-6        An interactive object-oriented scripting lan

I have both python2.1 and python2.2 installed.  Shouldn't python-apt be
able to work with my installed python2.1?  Checking the dependancies for
python-apt I see:

$ apt-cache show python-apt
Package: python-apt	[ unstable ]
Priority: optional
Section: python
Installed-Size: 164
Maintainer: APT Development Team <deity@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Version: 0.5.5
Depends: python (>= 2.2), python (<< 2.3), libapt-inst-libc6.3-5-1.0, libapt-pkg-libc6.3-5-3.3, libc6 (>= 2.3.1-1)
Filename: pool/main/p/python-apt/python-apt_0.5.5_i386.deb
Size: 41226
MD5sum: 4d0b5890d1a88633d448feeb5622cd23
Description: Python interface to libapt-pkg
 The apt-pkg Python interface will provide full access to the internal
 libapt-pkg structures allowing Python programs to easily perform a
 variety of functions, such as:
 .
  - Access to the APT configuration system
  - Access to the APT package information database
  - Parsing of Debian package control files, and other files with a
    similar structure

Package: python-apt	[ testing ]
Priority: optional
Section: python
Installed-Size: 256
Maintainer: APT Development Team <deity@lists.debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Version: 0.5.4.3
Depends: python (>= 2.1), python (<< 2.2), libapt-inst-libc6.2-3-2-1.0, libapt-pkg-libc6.2-3-2-3.2, libc6 (>= 2.2.4-4)
Filename: pool/main/p/python-apt/python-apt_0.5.4.3_i386.deb
Size: 69510
MD5sum: 84de01b39bbe2ef0106121cf152f40d2
Description: Python interface to libapt-pkg
 The apt-pkg Python interface will provide full access to the internal
 libapt-pkg structures allowing Python programs to easily perform a
 variety of functions, such as:
 .
  - Access to the APT configuration system
  - Access to the APT package information database
  - Parsing of Debian package control files, and other files with a
    similar structure
$

So, both the unstable and testing versions of python-apt depend on
"python", but on different versions.  Since "python2.1" and "python2.2"
exist as packages, shouldn't python-apt depend on the appropriate
package?

Since I do have unstable sources, I can fix this by installing the
unstable python-apt, but shouldn't it work with the testing version?

Thanks,

Randy Orrison