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Re: Deprecating regex/fnmatch fallback for package arguments, and 1.9.6 highlights



On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 11:11:38PM +0100, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> Starting with APT 2.0 (1.9.6 in experimental), the apt(8) binary will
> not try to interpret package names passed on the command-line as regular 
> expressions or fnmatch() style patterns. Future versions of apt-get(8)
> and apt-cache(8) will follow that change, following the release of bullseye.
> 
> # The problem
> 
> Interpreting arguments as package name, regular expression, or fnmatch
> expression, depending on which matches first, made apt very unpredictable:
> 
> The expression `apt install g++` could mean one of
> 
> - Install the package g++
> 
> - If g++ does not exist, install all packages containing g - as + is the
>   one-or-more operator 
> 
> Hence before 1.9.6, `apt install x++` installed any package containing x, 
> whereas `apt install g++` installed g++.


Heh, I totally forgot about the + modifier. So we are still not
fully deterministic: apt install/remove x++ means install x+, unless there
happens to be an x++.

Maybe we can figure out how to solve the modifier problem sensibly,
but e.g. moving it to the start didn't work.

-- 
debian developer - deb.li/jak | jak-linux.org - free software dev
ubuntu core developer                              i speak de, en


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