Bug#370219: apt: Dependency tree building thrashes small machines

[Vermont <vermontbug@rc-comp.com>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.6.44.1
Severity: important

On a machine with 8MB of RAM and 128MB of swap, apt-get is virtually
unusable - the building of the dependency tree causes incredible 
amounts of swap thrash. It takes apt-get about an hour to finish, if 
the out of memory killer doesn't get to it first.

Reproducible by booting linux with mem=8M.

I'm using the following sources.list:
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Get "";
APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated "1";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::sourceparts "sources.list.d";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 2.2
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-rc7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.3.6-9    GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                       1:4.1.0-4  GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6                    4.1.0-4    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

Versions of packages apt recommends:
pn  debian-archive-keyring        <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information