[Aptitude-devel] Bug#783836: aptitude: forget-new has no effect

[noc]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.11-1+b1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

aptitude seems to be unable to forget about "NEW" packages.

    root at localhost:/etc# aptitude search "~N"
    i   libgnutls26                                   - GNU TLS library - runtime library
    p   u-boot                                        - A boot loader for embedded systems
    root at localhost:/etc# aptitude forget-new
    root at localhost:/etc# aptitude search "~N"
    i   libgnutls26                                   - GNU TLS library - runtime library
    p   u-boot                                        - A boot loader for embedded systems
    root at localhost:/etc# 

i've only seen this behaviour on a single machine. all others behave as expected.
however, i haven't found anything special on this machine (nothing in apt/preferences.c; apt/apt.conf.d doesn't look special either).

running aptitude with a higher verbosity, doesn't reveal anything either:

    root at localhost:/etc# aptitude -v -v forget-new -v -v
    root at localhost:/etc#




-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm
$DISPLAY not set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.6.11 compiled at Nov  8 2014 13:34:39
Compiler: g++ 4.9.1
Compiled against:
  apt version 4.12.0
  NCurses version 5.9
  libsigc++ version: 2.4.0
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 5.9.20140913
  cwidget version: 0.5.17
  Apt version: 4.12.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd241af000)
	libapt-pkg.so.4.12 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.4.12 (0x00007f3253efa000)
	libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f3253cc4000)
	libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007f3253a99000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f3253893000)
	libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007f325357d000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f32532b4000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 (0x00007f325309c000)
	libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007f3252c8b000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f3252a6d000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f3252762000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f3252461000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f325224a000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f3251ea1000)
	libutil.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f3251c9e000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f3251a99000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f325187e000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007f325166e000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f325144a000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f3251242000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f325103c000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f32548c7000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500, 'stable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.6.11-1
ii  libapt-pkg4.12            1.0.9.8
ii  libboost-iostreams1.55.0  1.55.0+dfsg-3
ii  libc6                     2.19-18
ii  libcwidget3               0.5.17-2
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.9.2-10
ii  libncursesw5              5.9+20140913-1+b1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a        2.4.0-1
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.8.7.1-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.9.2-10
ii  libtinfo5                 5.9+20140913-1+b1
ii  libxapian22               1.2.19-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
pn  aptitude-doc-en | aptitude-doc  <none>
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl   1.2.0-1.1
ii  sensible-utils                  0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index  <none>
pn  debtags           <none>
ii  tasksel           3.31

-- no debconf information