[Aptitude-devel] Bug#722158: aptitude frequently forgets "hold" state

[Ralf Jung]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.8.2-1.2
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

aptitude frequently forgets packages being "on hold". For several weeks now,
I have the jack libraries on hold, but often when I start "aptitude -u" and then hit "U",
it will still try to update the packages. Then I have to "Cancel pending actions",
and mark the packages as "on hold" again before continuing the update.
Unfortunately, I found no way to reproduce this problem. It also happens when I start
"aptitude" and hit "u" and then "U", but so far I don't think it ever happened if the
list update was a no-op (as all lists where already up-to-date). The bug does NOT depend
on whether any other packages become upgradeable.

Kind regards
Ralf

-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.6.8.2 compiled at Aug 25 2013 12:37:10
Compiler: g++ 4.8.1
Compiled against:
  apt version 4.12.0
  NCurses version 5.9
  libsigc++ version: 2.2.10
  Ept support enabled.
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 5.9.20130608
  cwidget version: 0.5.16
  Apt version: 4.12.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff3e96e000)
	libapt-pkg.so.4.12 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.4.12 (0x00007f33fce95000)
	libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f33fcc65000)
	libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007f33fca3b000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f33fc836000)
	libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007f33fc536000)
	libept.so.1.aptpkg4.12 => /usr/lib/libept.so.1.aptpkg4.12 (0x00007f33fc295000)
	libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007f33fbeb2000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f33fbc9a000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f33fb9e8000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.54.0 => /usr/lib/libboost_iostreams.so.1.54.0 (0x00007f33fb7ce000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f33fb5b2000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f33fb2a9000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f33fafab000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f33fad95000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f33fa9e8000)
	libutil.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f33fa7e5000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f33fa5e1000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007f33fa3d0000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f33fa3ca000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f33fa1c1000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f33fd81b000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (100, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.10-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.6.8.2-1.2
ii  libapt-pkg4.12            0.9.11.2
ii  libboost-iostreams1.54.0  1.54.0-2
ii  libc6                     2.17-92+b1
ii  libcwidget3               0.5.16-3.4
ii  libept1.4.12              1.0.9
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.8.1-2
ii  libncursesw5              5.9+20130608-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a        2.2.10-0.2
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.7.17-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.8.1-2
ii  libtinfo5                 5.9+20130608-1
ii  libxapian22               1.2.15-2
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.8.dfsg-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  apt-xapian-index                0.46
ii  aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc]  0.6.8.2-1.2
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl   1.2.0-1
ii  sensible-utils                  0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  debtags  <none>
pn  tasksel  <none>

-- no debconf information