Bug#731520: apt: please improve when arch:any pkg dep on arch:all data pkg or data pkg breaks :any

[Thorsten Glaser <tg@mirbsd.de>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.9.12.1
Severity: wishlist

Hi,

as user of one of the slower architectures (m68k), I regularily
see things like this in apt-get --purge dist-upgrade:

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  git* mc*
The following packages will be upgraded:
  […] git-man […] mc-data […]

The situations here are:
• newer git and mc have been uploaded but not built yet
• newer git-man and mc-data are arch:all and thus available
• mc Depends mc-data (= same version), yet apt wants to
  upgrade mc-data at all costs, even removing the reason
  it has been installed in the first place
• git-man Breaks git (<< same version), yet apt wants to
  upgrade git-man at all costs. Hm, and git Depends on
  git-man in a rather curious way.

This is a pattern I see a lot (e.g. I’m using
	Package: glib-networking-common
	Pin: version 2.36.1-2~m68k.1
	Pin-Priority: 1001
in /etc/apt/preferences because this, too, is a data
package that APT insists on upgrading otherwise).

Can this situation be improved, if the pattern “there
is an arch:any package that gets removed by a related¹
arch:all package being upgraded”, maybe at least for
the situation where both are currently installed?

① ofc “related” has to be defined somehow

If this is not possible or feasible at all, feel free
to close the report, I’ll have to continue using “hold”
then, but maybe…


-- Package-specific info:

-- (/etc/apt/preferences present, but not submitted) --


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers unreleased
  APT policy: (500, 'unreleased'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: m68k

Kernel: Linux 3.11-2-m68k
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/lksh

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2012.4
ii  gnupg                   1.4.15-1.1
ii  libapt-pkg4.12          0.9.12.1
ii  libc6                   2.17-96
ii  libgcc2                 4.8.2-5+m68k.1
ii  libstdc++6              4.8.2-5+m68k.1

apt recommends no packages.

Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn  apt-doc                      <none>
pn  aptitude | synaptic | wajig  <none>
ii  dpkg-dev                     1.17.1
pn  python-apt                   <none>
ii  xz-utils                     5.1.1alpha+20120614-2

-- no debconf information