Hi,
On Fri, Jul 23, 2021 at 09:44:43PM -0500, ng wrote:
> Today I ran 'sudo apt purge ./anything.deb' on a package that WAS NOT
> installed in my system. And apt's response was to install that package, as
> if I were running 'apt install'. Except that it was 'apt purge'.
> Funny.
Try: "apt remove awesome+". This will install 'awesome' for you. Just
like a "apt install awesome-" will then remove it again.
The commands "remove/install/purge/…" only provide a default mode
of operation for packages which do not have an explicit action
associated.
Now, for ./anything.deb you can consider two schools of thought:
1. "./anything.deb" clearly means I want to install that package as why
I am going to the trouble of giving an explicit deb file, if I could
just use the name and remove it that way. So this clearly is an explicit
install action regardless of the default mode. ("apt show ./anything.deb"
shows me the info about that version, too, not some candidate as usual).
2. "./anything.deb" is a substitute for the name only, I am using it in
a remove because I just installed it and shell history gives me quick
access to removing it this way. I am expecting it to respect the default
mode (and to be able to explicitly choose a mode ala "./anything.deb+";
and would a "apt purge ./anything_v1.deb" remove an installed anything
v2?).
For better or worse the implementation currently follows the first
school, which can indeed be surprising if you (by not considering what
I just mentioned with default vs. explicit action) think the second is
what is going on as that is how most other software behaves.
I do have some sympathy for both schools, so I am not really sure what
to do about this report here to be honest.
I do lean slightly towards notabug + wontfix though as (even though
highly unlikely in practice) a change of schools would be an interface
break – and it has these weird follow up questions of potentially
allowing ./anything.deb{-,+,=…} as well which makes this not so simple…
Best regards
David Kalnischkies
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