[Aptitude-devel] Bug#757028: aptitude: aptitude does not install new essential packages automatically

[Daniel Hartwig]

On 5 August 2014 01:08, Axel Beckert <abe at debian.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Stanley Schade wrote:
>> I am running an up-to-date installation of jessie and recently found
>> that aptitude does not install the new init package automatically,
>> though it is marked as essential.
>
> ... which is what I would expect. AFAIK there's no obligation to install
> essential packages if they pop up newly -- unless another package
> depends on it..
>
> APT and Aptitude just both warn the user if you try to remove them.
>

Some time last year I tested apt-get vs aptitude on this.  IIRC
apt-get dist-upgrade would install new essential packages, and I
believe that aptitude should as well (but does not yet).

Ignoring the specific case here of init systems, any system without
all essential packages installed should be considered broken, in some
sense.  From debian-policy:

  Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality that must
  be available and usable on the system at all times …

I think that apt-get is doing the right thing here, and aptitude
should be updated (a minor change) to also do this.

Regards