Re: To be able to reinstall a package with all its depencencies
On 04/11/2013 07:43 PM, David Kalnischkies wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 3:34 PM, Alberto Fuentes
> <alberto.fuentes@qindel.com> wrote:
>> Right now apt-get install --reinstall only reinstall the current
>> package. Does it make sense to reinstall depencencies as well? (maybe
>> new ones and remove old ones if it has to upgrade or otherwise)
>>
>> I know I wanted to do this a couple of times and wondered why you couldn't
>
> Why? Have you a usecase for it you would care to describe?
>
> As far as I see it, the usefulness of --reinstall is very very limited as it
> makes only sense in cases I have removed some files of the package manually,
> forced dpkg to override files, did a "make install" as root or other such
> "silliness" which is not only discouraged to perform, but --reinstall is also
> unlikely to fix it if its not a very simple problem.
I think that yeah, you nailed it. Right now all I can think about is
from having installed something from experimental.
I understand is discouraged. And Im the only one to blame after doing
something silly that breaks my system if I do. But nevertheless I think
it would be nice to have it, with direct depencencies only by default or
--all to reinstall world (or as deep as it needed) with big letters or
*WARNING* saying this is not probably what you want.
> There is also the problem of what a dependency might be in that context. Just
> (pre-)depends or also breaks/conflicts and what about recommends/suggests?
> And just first level or whole tree (which easily will end in apt-get
> --reinstall world)
I certainly didnt think of this. I guess it can be quite troublesome and
useless or a bad idea overall. :)
Next time I miss the feature with other use case I will ponder this
again with this in mind.
This is the last use case I can think of:
I installed xfce4 from experimental. Some dependencies are upgraded but
a simple install xfce4 -t experimental wont do and I have to look for
them manually.
Theres gotta be a better way for us daredevils :)
I know the answer is probably that maintainer should bump xfce4 version
when depencencies upgrade and that experimental does not have any kind
of support and you are expected to mess with it manually.
Still its hard not to go to experimental with packages like iceweasel
iceweasel:
Installed: 19.0-1
Candidate: 19.0-1
Version table:
20.0-1 0
1 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages
*** 19.0-1 0
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
10.0.12esr-1+nmu1 0
990 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sid/main amd64 Packages
10.0.12esr-1 0
500 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy/main amd64 Packages
Thank you!
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