[Aptitude-devel] Bug#713909: Bug#713909: slash operator when there are more than one /experimental

[Daniel Hartwig]

Control: found -1 0.6.8.2-1
Control: tags -1 + wontfix

On 24 June 2013 03:18,  <jidanni at jidanni.org> wrote:
> Package: aptitude
> Version: 0.6.9.1-1
>
> Man page says
>            Similarly, to select a package from a particular archive, append
>            "/<archive>" to the package name: for instance, "aptitude install
>            apt/experimental".
>
> However in the case of
> # apt-cache policy iceweasel
> iceweasel:
>   Installed: (none)
>   Candidate: 23.0~a2+20130621004018-1
>   Version table:
>      23.0~a2+20130621004018-1 0
>         990 http://mozilla.debian.net/ experimental/iceweasel-aurora i386 Packages
>      21.0-1 0
>         990 http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main i386 Packages
>      17.0.6esr-1 0
>         500 http://ftp.br.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main i386 Packages
>
> There is no way we can choose further,
> # aptitude -s install iceweasel/experimental/main
> Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "iceweasel/experimental"
> Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "iceweasel/experimental"
> E: Unable to locate package iceweasel/experimental
> E: Unable to locate package iceweasel/experimental
>
> (we must resort to install iceweasel=21.0-1.)
>

Here and in sources.list(5) the terms ‘archive’ and ‘distribution’
mean the same thing.  Probably we should update aptitude documentation
to use ‘distribution’ as apt-get(8) does.  The output from apt-cache
policy is for convenience, and does not indicate that there is a
‘experimental/iceweasel-aurora’ distribution.

As far as apt is concerned, only the most recent version in each
distribution is relevant.  The component (‘iceweasel-aurora’ and
‘main’) is not imporant.

To select a non-default version one time, use “=VERSION” syntax as you noted.

For something more permanent, use apt_prefences(5) which is the
preferred way to handle such precise policy settings.  I do not see
the utility of enabling the iceweasel-aurora source if you are not
interested in having those versions _by default_.  To include all ways
of selecting packages on the command line makes a very complicated
syntax which is undesirable, and the reason why there is
apt_preferences(5).

Regards