+1 - I've run into this before which makes large server fleet management a bit more difficult as we're monitoring for update problems, which relies on non-zero return codes from apt tools in our monitoring checks. -----Original Message----- From: Thure Duehrsen <T.Duehrsen@gmx.net> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2025 5:29 AM To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Bug#1110900: apt update misleadingly says "All packages are up-to-date" when no package sources are configured [You don't often get email from t.duehrsen@gmx.net. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] This email originated outside of WHOI. Please use caution if clicking on links or opening attachments. Package: apt Version: 2.6.1 Severity: minor X-Debbugs-Cc: T.Duehrsen@gmx.net Dear Maintainer, in the process of upgrading from Bookworm to Trixie, I am changing the sources format from traditional to Deb822. There is a brief window where no sources are configured at all. If I run `apt update` during this window, apt reports that "All packages are up-to-date" without any warning or error, even though no sources are present. Steps to reproduce: 1. Remove all configured package sources (both classic sources.list and Deb822 `.sources` files). 2. Run `apt update`. Observed behaviour: The output says "All packages are up to date" with no warning or error, even though no sources were configured and nothing was actually checked. Expected behaviour: Apt should print an error or warning such as: W: No package sources are configured -- cannot check for updates. This avoids giving a false impression that updates were checked. Why this matters: The current output can hide misconfiguration (e.g., during migration from sources.list to Deb822 format). A user may incorrectly believe their system is fully up-to-date when in fact no sources were consulted. Transcript: ------------------------------------------------------------ root@kleintierlaptop:~/upgrade-bookworm-to-trixie# cd /etc/apt/ root@kleintierlaptop:/etc/apt# ls -laFht total 72K drwxr-xr-x 163 root root 12K Aug 10 19:04 ../ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K May 21 11:27 trusted.gpg.d/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Jun 28 2023 apt.conf.d/ drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4.0K Jun 28 2023 ./ lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Jun 28 2023 sources.list -> sources.list.bookworm -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.6K Jun 28 2023 sources.list.bookworm drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K May 25 2023 keyrings/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.1K Oct 30 2021 sources.list.bullseye drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Mar 28 2021 listchanges.conf.d/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 146 Dec 25 2019 listchanges.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.9K Dec 24 2019 sources.list.buster drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K May 28 2019 auth.conf.d/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.9K Sep 30 2017 sources.list.stable -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.0K Sep 30 2017 sources.list.stretch -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.9K Sep 30 2017 sources.list.jessie -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jul 30 2015 sources.list~ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 13 2015 preferences.d/ drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0K Apr 13 2015 sources.list.d/ root@kleintierlaptop:/etc/apt# rm sources.list root@kleintierlaptop:/etc/apt# apt update Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done All packages are up to date. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please let me know if more debugging info is needed.
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