Bug#277909: /usr/bin/apt-get: wildcards select nonmatching packets

["Adam D. Barratt" <debian-bts@adam-barratt.org.uk>]

On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 12:28 +0200, Bernhard Kuemel wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 0.5.27
> Severity: critical
> Justification: may remove unrelated software
> 
> apt-get remove --purge "ntp*" selects non matching packets
> including essential ones like mount or login.

No. It's selected *exactly* what you told it to.

> bksys:/etc/default# apt-get remove --purge "ntp*"
> Reading Package Lists...
> Building Dependency Tree...
> Note, selecting liblog-agent-logger-perl for regex 'ntp*'

^^^^^^^^^

Note the key aspect there (*regex*). You asked it to remove packages
matching the regexp "n followed by t followed by zero or more
occurrences of p". mou*nt* matches that pattern, as do some of the other
packages. Those that don't will have been selected as dependencies of
those packages, or dependencies of their dependencies, or...

Regards,

Adam