Bug#601961: apt: wrongly thinks install-info is essential
On 31/10/10 at 14:16 +0100, David Kalnischkies wrote:
> Hi Lucas,
>
> On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 12:40, Lucas Nussbaum <lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net> wrote:
> > apt won't let me remove install-info, because it thinks that it is
> > essential.
> >
> > grep depends on dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info
> > my dpkg is 1.15.8.5
> > so I should be allowed to remove install-info without that:
> >
> > WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed.
> > This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
> > install-info (due to grep)
>
> APT uses "essential" here not in the "Essential: yes" sense but
> in the essential tools and packages sense. APT considers all
> packages priority "important" or higher as essential for a system
> And prints this "AnalPrompt" (as the sourcecode puts it) to prevent
> the user from doing something stupid as it is unlikely that the "normal"
> user really wants to remove an important package - and all others tend
> to know exactly what they are doing…
> So, does this really need to be "serious" - or is it a bug at all?
OK, I didn't know that. So, it's not serious...
> The "due to" seems to be completely bogus through - looks like
> it just looks at reverse dependencies without considering or-groups
> but i haven't looked at the code so far.
> (will check that later after recovering from post-uds jet-lag)
but this is still a bug, it seems.
- Lucas
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