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Bug#459481: apt: Wish: A "Test/Repair installed packages" option



We are all intimidated when confronted with the word firewalls. Harddrive partitioning is the largest hurdle in any Linux installation. Debian is no exception. EXT2, EXT3, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS are all just a series of meaningless abbrevations to anyone. I speak mostly for myself.
 
Is your laptop USB 2.0 capable? Does it use Firewire? Try to find multiple external IDE hardrives. They have a large disk capacity. Play around with raid arrays. Learn about Logical Volume Management. Help realize the dream of one optimal filesystem.
 
apt is not the panacea, it only feels that way.
 
On 1/6/08, Nick Daly <myownlittlworld@yahoo.com> wrote:
Package: apt
Version: 0.6.46.4-0.1
Severity: wishlist

*** Please type your report below this line ***
Unfortunately, I run a laptop with an (at best) shoddy harddrive (which
I'll replace when I can afford it), and it's a harddrive that crashes
and loses files with reckless abandon (thank god for my backup drive).
Every so often, it loses a file from /usr/bin or /usr/lib, with
understandably horrid results.

What I'd really like to do is have a way of testing my system for
packages with missing/broken files.  For example, I'd really like to run
"apt-busted iceweasel" and then the program would test for the existence
(and possibly correct MD5 or CRC32 checksum) of all the files installed
by the iceweasel package.  If any of the files didn't check out,
"apt-busted" would list the package, the non-working files, and give the
user the option to reinstall the broken package.

Possible useful arguments would include:
"--depend"      Tests installed dependencies of the mentioned package.
"--recommend"   Tests installed recommended packages of the mentioned
package.
"--suggest"     Tests installed suggested packages of the mentioned
package.
"--checksum"    Tests for the correct checksum of each file, in addition
to mere existence and correct size tests.  This assumes of course, checksums
for individual files are built into Debian packages which may not be the case,
but would be wonderful if true.
"--recursive=<# of levels>/all" Tests each installed package (based on
command-line arguments) depended/recommended/suggested by the mentioned
package, # levels deep. Or tests all installed d/r/s packages mentioned: until
packages have no further dependencies or a circular dependency loop is
achieved.
"--everything!!!"       Tests every package on the system.  Would likely
take years to complete, but would be worth the effort.

To ensure correct verification packages tested would have to be
downloaded into the apt-cache, if they weren't already there, to be
testable.

After each run, "apt-busted" would provide a list of packages and
files that didn't verify correctly, and then offer the user the option
to reinstall the mentioned, possibly broken packages/files.

I know this is a crazy pie-in-the-sky idea, but it would give a
beautiful verifiability and error-recovery to the Debian system.

Thanks so much for reading this idea,
Nick Daly

-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Authentication "";
APT::Authentication::TrustCDROM "true";
APT::Periodic "";
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "0";
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:: "if dpkg -s apt-listbugs | grep -q '^Status: .* ok
ins$DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges --apt || test $? -ne
10";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Tools "";
DPkg::Tools::Options "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges::Version "2";

-- /etc/apt/preferences --

Package: *
Pin: release o=Unofficial Multimedia Packages
Pin-Priority: 450

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian a=stable
Pin-Priority: 550


-- /etc/apt/sources.list --

deb http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ stable main #contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirror.peer1.net/debian/ stable main # contrib non-free
# deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main #non-free contrib
# deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free

# backports
#deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

# virtualbox
#deb http://www.virtualbox.org/debian etch non-free

# pidgin
# deb http://people.backports.org/~tretkowski/etch/ ./
# deb-src http://people.backports.org/~tretkowski/etch/ ./

# media!
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ stable main
# wine
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/ etch main
# deb-src http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/ etch main

# splash screen!
# deb http://splashy.alioth.debian.org/debian/ unstable main #Splasy!

# cinelerra
# deb http://www.kiberpipa.org/~minmax/cinelerra/builds/etch/ ./
# deb-src http://www.kiberpipa.org/~minmax/cinelerra/builds/etch/ ./

# beryl
# deb http://debian.beryl-project.org/ etch main

# enlightenment 17
# deb http://debian.alphagemini.org/debian/ unstable main

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
APT prefers stable
APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-5-686
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2007.07.31~etch1 GnuPG archive keys of the Debian a
ii  libc6                   2.5-9+b1         GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.1.1-21       GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6              4.1.1-21         The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

apt recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information


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