Bug#176573: FW: apt-get "+" qualifier on package names doesn't work as documented.

["Bruce Edge" <bedge@troikanetworks.com>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.4

The docs (man apt-get) state that you can append a plus sign to a package name in order 
to force it's installation despite conflicts:

       install
              [snip] If a hyphen is appended to the package  name  (with
              no  intervening  space), the identified package will be removed if it
              is installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a  pack-
              age  to  install. These latter features may be used to override deci-
              sions made by apt-get's conflict resolution system.

This doesn't work:

~ #> apt-get install lprng+ cupsys-bsd+ 
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Sorry, cupsys-bsd is already the newest version.
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.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
  cupsys-bsd: Conflicts: lpr
              Conflicts: lprng but 3.8.10-1 is to be installed
  cupsys-client: Conflicts: lprng but 3.8.10-1 is to be installed
  lprng: Conflicts: lpr
         Conflicts: cupsys-bsd but 1.1.18-2 is to be installed
E: Sorry, broken packages


My rational for wanting to do this is I'm using apt-get with --download-only to create a
local package mirror of everything I need to burn my own custom installer CD.
As it stands, I cannot use this method to create a package pool with any conflicting 
packages.


My exact usage (with smaller package list for example) is:

~ #> apt-get -t woody -o Dir::Etc::sourcelist=./sources.list -o Dir::Etc::preferences=./preferences -o Dir::State::status=/dev/null -o Dir::Cache=/tmp/rep.6446 -o Dir::State=/tmp/rep.6446 -o Dir::Cache::Archives=/tmp/rep.6446/archives -o Dir::State::Lists=/tmp/rep.6446/lists --reinstall --download-only -y install lprng cupsys-bsd
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  cupsys-client debconf fileutils libc6 libcupsys2 libjpeg62 libpng2 libtiff3g
  perl-base zlib1g 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cupsys-bsd cupsys-client debconf fileutils libc6 libcupsys2 libjpeg62 libpng2
  libtiff3g perl-base zlib1g 
0 packages upgraded, 11 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0  not upgraded.
Need to get 5250kB of archives. After unpacking 19.0MB will be used.
Get:1 copy: woody/main libc6 2.2.5-11.2 [3383kB]
Get:2 copy: woody/main fileutils 4.1-10 [710kB]
Get:3 copy: woody-proposed-updates/main perl-base 5.6.1-8.2 [496kB]
Get:4 copy: woody/main debconf 1.0.32 [94.0kB]
Get:5 copy: woody/main zlib1g 1:1.1.4-1 [44.0kB]
Get:6 copy: woody-proposed-updates/main libpng2 1.0.12-3.woody.3 [107kB]
Get:7 copy: woody/main libjpeg62 6b-5 [76.4kB]
Get:8 copy: woody/main libtiff3g 3.5.5-6 [79.6kB]
Get:9 copy: woody-proposed-updates/main libcupsys2 1.1.14-4 [110kB]
Get:10 copy: woody-proposed-updates/main cupsys-client 1.1.14-4 [83.1kB]
Get:11 copy: woody-proposed-updates/main cupsys-bsd 1.1.14-4 [66.9kB]
Fetched 5250kB in 1s (3824kB/s)
Download complete and in download only mode

Note that lptng has been silently dropped from the packages retrieved.

I am using sid, kernel 2.4.18 and libc6 2.3.1-9

-Bruce