Bug#587620: apt: add an optionnal "Why" field to "suggest" entries (in the dependency field)
Package: apt
Version: 0.7.25.3
Severity: wishlist
Hello,
Sometimes, from a user point of view, understanding why a package A recommends
or suggests package B1 or B2 is not straightforward.
It would be nice to add an optionnal "why" field to explain what features are
enabled in package A when installing package B1.
Ideally, this could be displayed when the user calls : apt-cache show or looks
at the package data in another front-end for apt. This way, they would know
from the start if they want to install package B1 all along, when installing A.
Best regards,
Alexandre Fournier
-- Package-specific info:
-- apt-config dump --
APT "";
APT::Architecture "amd64";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Install-Recommends "1";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
APT::Acquire "";
APT::Acquire::Translation "environment";
APT::Authentication "";
APT::Authentication::TrustCDROM "true";
APT::NeverAutoRemove "";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-restricted-modules.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^kfreebsd-image.*";
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::netrc "auth.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Etc::preferencesparts "preferences.d";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
Dir::Media "";
Dir::Media::MountPath "/media/apt";
Dir::Log "var/log/apt";
Dir::Log::Terminal "term.log";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs apt || exit 10";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Tools "";
DPkg::Tools::Options "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs::Version "2";
-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --
-- /etc/apt/sources.list --
# deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ lenny main
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
#deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
#deb-src http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile lenny/volatile main
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main
deb http://condor.infra.s1.p.fti.net/dop sarge ke-preprod
deb ftp://ftp.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii debian-archive-keyring 2009.01.31 GnuPG archive keys of the Debian a
ii libc6 2.11.1-3 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii libgcc1 1:4.5.0-1 GCC support library
ii libstdc++6 4.5.0-1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
apt recommends no packages.
Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn apt-doc <none> (no description available)
ii aptitude 0.6.1.5-3 terminal-based package manager (te
ii bzip2 1.0.5-4 high-quality block-sorting file co
pn dpkg-dev <none> (no description available)
ii lzma 4.43-14 Compression method of 7z format in
ii python-apt 0.7.95 Python interface to libapt-pkg
ii synaptic 0.63.1 Graphical package manager
-- no debconf information
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