[Aptitude-devel] Bug#773715: aptitude: let's configure you to install untrusted packages, but always becomes interactive with no default answer otherwise

[Axel Beckert]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.11-1
Severity: important
Affects: aptitude-robot

Citing from src/cmdline/cmdline_prompt.cc:

    524   if(!untrusted.empty())
    525     {
    526       printf(_("WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed!\n\n"
    527                "Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security.\n"
    528                "You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that\n"
    529                "this is what you want to do.\n\n"));
    530 
    531       cmdline_show_pkglist(untrusted, term_metrics);
    532 
    533       printf("\n");
    534 
    535 
    536       if(aptcfg->FindB(PACKAGE "::CmdLine::Ignore-Trust-Violations", false))
    537         {
    538           printf(_("*** WARNING ***   Ignoring these trust violations because\n"
    539                    "                  %s::CmdLine::Ignore-Trust-Violations is 'true'!\n"),
    540                  PACKAGE);
    541           return true;
    542         }
    543 
    544       if(aptcfg->FindB("Apt::Get::AllowUnauthenticated", false))
    545         {
    546           printf("%s",
    547                  _("*** WARNING ***   Ignoring these trust violations because\n"
    548                    "                  Apt::Get::AllowUnauthenticated is 'true'!\n"));
    549           return true;
    550         }
    […]
    573       while(1)
    574         {
    575           printf(_("Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?\n"));
    576           printf(_("To continue, enter \"%s\"; to abort, enter \"%s\": "), okstr.c_str(), abortstr.c_str());
    577           char buf[1024];
    578           cin.getline(buf, 1023);
    579           buf[1023]='\0';
    580 
    581           if(cin.eof())
    582             throw StdinEOFException();
    583 
    584 
    585           const bool is_ok =             strncasecmp(okstr.c_str(), buf, okstr.size()) == 0;
    586           const bool is_fallback_ok =    strncasecmp(fallback_okstr.c_str(), buf, fallback_okstr.size()) == 0;
    587           const bool is_abort =          strncasecmp(abortstr.c_str(), buf, abortstr.size()) == 0;
    588           const bool is_fallback_abort = strncasecmp(fallback_abortstr.c_str(), buf, fallback_abortstr.size()) == 0;
    589 
    590           const bool rval = is_ok || (is_fallback_ok && !is_abort);
    591 
    592           if(!is_ok && !is_abort && !is_fallback_ok && !is_fallback_abort)
    593             printf(_("Unrecognized input.  Enter either \"%s\" or \"%s\".\n"), okstr.c_str(), abortstr.c_str());
    594           else
    595             return rval;
    596         }
    597     }

Lines 536 and 544 check for configuration settings allowing untrusted
packages to be installed anyways, but there's no way to preconfigure
that you want packages to be _not_ installed in such a case.

Which leads to the fact that aptitude _always_ requires input in the
case that you got untrusted packages (e.g. in case of an BADSIG error)
and want them to be skipped.

There's not even a default answer upon pressing enter as it's the case
with AFAIK all interactive dpkg and apt-get question, i.e. using "yes ''
| aptitude" to get a sane default (as aptitude-robot does) isn't
possible and currently leads to aptitude filling the logs quickly with
the following lines:

> WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed!
>
> Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security.
> You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that
> this is what you want to do.
>
>   <package list>
>
> Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
> To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
> Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
> To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
> Do you want to ignore this warning and proceed anyway?
> To continue, enter "Yes"; to abort, enter "No": Unrecognized input.  Enter either "Yes" or "No".
> […]

And no, using "yes 'No' | aptitude" is no option since "No" is not
always the default answer.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (600, 'testing'), (110, 'experimental'), (109, 'buildd-unstable'), (109, 'buildd-experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.18.0-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.6.11-1
ii  libapt-pkg4.12            1.0.9.4
ii  libboost-iostreams1.55.0  1.55.0+dfsg-3
ii  libc6                     2.19-13
ii  libcwidget3               0.5.17-2
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.9.2-9
ii  libncursesw5              5.9+20140913-1+b1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a        2.4.0-1
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.8.7.2-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.9.2-9
ii  libtinfo5                 5.9+20140913-1+b1
ii  libxapian22               1.2.19-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc]  0.6.11-1
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl   1.2.0-1.1
ii  sensible-utils                  0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
ii  apt-xapian-index  0.47
ii  debtags           1.12.3
ii  tasksel           3.29

-- no debconf information