Bug#167899: apt: Another case of repeated 'updates' to the same version

["Daniel Müller" <daniel.mueller@tm.uka.de>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.4
Followup-For: Bug #167899

Apt does install the same version of several packages each time I run
"apt-get upgrade". One of them is "swat" (version 2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1):

> apt-cache policy swat
swat:
  Installed: 2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1
  Candidate: 2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1
  Version Table:
     2.999+3.0.alpha21-3 0
        101 ftp://ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de unstable/main Packages
        101 ftp://ftp.debian.de unstable/main Packages
     2.2.3a-12 0
        900 ftp://ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de woody/main Packages
        900 ftp://ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de woody/updates/main Packages
        900 ftp://ftp.debian.de woody/main Packages
        900 ftp://security.debian.org woody/updates/main Packages
     2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1 0
        102 http://www2.scram.de stable/ipv6 Packages
     2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1 0
        911 http://www2.scram.de testing/ipv6 Packages
 *** 2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.2.3a-6 0
        910 ftp://ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de testing/main Packages
        910 ftp://ftp.debian.de testing/main Packages

> cat /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing-proposed-updates
Pin-Priority: 912

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing,c=ipv6
Pin-Priority: 911

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 910

Package: *
Pin: release v=3.*,a=proposed-updates
Pin-Priority: 910

Package: *
Pin: release v=3.*,c=ipv6
Pin-Priority: 901

Package: *
Pin: release v=3.*
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,c=ipv6
Pin-Priority: 102

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 101

It looks strange to me that the testing version is older than the
stable version. Maybe this is part of the problem, and probably I
should rethink my pin priorities, given that the assumption that
testing is always newer than stable seems to be wrong.

But anyway, shouldn't apt notice that the version it wants to install
(2.2.3a-6.ipv6.r1, because is has a higher priority than the highest
priority newer version 2.2.3a-12) is already installed?

Regards,
Daniel

-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux tpce14 2.4.20 #1 Fre Jan 10 11:30:36 CET 2003 i686
Locale: LANG=de_DE@euro, LC_CTYPE=de_DE@euro

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                        2.3.1-9     GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2       1:2.95.4-15 The GNU stdc++ library