Bug#587989: apt-get source fetches the wrong package

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

Torsten Werner <twerner@debian.org> writes:

> Package: apt
> Version: 0.7.25.3
> Severity: normal
>
> Hi,
>
>   $ apt-get source -s automake
>   NOTE: This is only a simulation!
> 	apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
> 	Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
> 	so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
>   Reading package lists... Done
>   Building dependency tree       
>   Reading state information... Done
>   Picking 'automake1.11' as source package instead of 'automake'
>   Need to get 1074kB of source archives.
>   Fetch source automake1.11
>
> Why that? I want automake, not automake1.11.
>
> Cheers and thanks for your work,
> Torsten

Because the source for the automake binary package is automake1.11:

Package: automake
Architecture: all
Version: 1:1.11.1-1
Filename: pool/main/a/automake1.11/automake_1.11.1-1_all.deb
Source: automake1.11

Note the difference between

  apt-cache show automake

and

  apt-cache showsrc automake

"apt-get source" fetches the source for the given BINARY package unless
that does not exists or --only-source is given.

So did you actually want to do the following?

  apt-get --only-source source automake

MfG
        Goswin