[Aptitude-devel] Bug#710587: aptitude: unable to purge a package

Tue Sep 8 14:40:20 UTC 2015

Control: tags -1 + moreinfo unreproducible

Hi shirish,

2013-06-01 04:29 shirish शिरीष:
>Package: aptitude
>Version: 0.6.9.1-1
>Severity: normal
>
>Dear Maintainer,
>I am/was trying to purge a package which has been removed (to remove
>the configuration files which have remained behind) but haven't been
>able to remove it.
>
>$ aptitude search gnotski
>c   gnotski                                                   -
>Klotski puzzle game for GNOME (transitional package)
>
>$ sudo aptitude purge gnotski -y
>The following packages will be REMOVED:
>  gnotski{p}
>0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
>Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
>D000001: deferred_remove package gnotski:all
>dpkg: warning: ignoring request to remove gnotski which isn't installed
>
>Now the problem is when I do an aptitude search it shows that the
>package has been removed as seen in the notation 'c' while searching
>for it (as seen above) but there is something in the package which was
>not removed.
>
>Can something be done about this?

Is this with multi-arch enabled?  gnotski is now a transitional package,
arch all, added on 25 May 2013 (very close to when the bug report
happened), it must have been arch-dependent before.

For more information, this is what happens in my system when mixing
multi-arch packages and the arch is not specified in the command line.
Maybe "aptitude purge ~c" (or something in the middle) missed passing
the arch to apt/dpkg, and that's what got things confused between the
tools to get the action done.

  (removing some lines of output to make it shorter/clearer)

  # aptitude install netris:i386
  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    netris:i386
  0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B/37.9 kB of archives. After unpacking 135 kB will be used.
  Selecting previously unselected package netris:i386.
  ...
  Preparing to unpack .../netris_0.52-9_i386.deb ...
  Unpacking netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...
  ...
  Setting up netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude purge netris
  No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.

  # aptitude remove netris
  Package netris is not installed, so it will not be removed
  No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.

  # aptitude remove netris:i386
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris:i386
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 135 kB will be freed.
  ...
  Removing netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude purge netris
  No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.

  # aptitude purge netris:i386
  Package netris:i386 is not installed, so it will not be removed
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris:i386{p}
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
  ...
  Removing netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...
  Purging configuration files for netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

Otherwise, with the "main" arch, I cannot reproduce this with aptitude
0.7.1-1:

  # aptitude install netris
  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    netris
  0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B/42.0 kB of archives. After unpacking 98.3 kB will be used.
  Selecting previously unselected package netris.
  ...
  Preparing to unpack .../netris_0.52-9_amd64.deb ...
  Unpacking netris (0.52-9) ...
  ...
  Setting up netris (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude remove netris
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 98.3 kB will be freed.
  ...
  Removing netris (0.52-9) ...

  # dpkg -l netris | grep netris
  rc  netris         0.52-9       amd64        free, networked version of T*tris

  # aptitude purge netris
  Package netris is not installed, so it will not be removed
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris{p}
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
  ...
  Removing netris (0.52-9) ...
  Purging configuration files for netris (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude purge netris
  No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.

  # dpkg -l netris | grep netris
  dpkg-query: no packages found matching netris

Same but with "aptitude purge ~c" after netris "aptitude removed":

  # aptitude purge ~c
  Package netris is not installed, so it will not be removed
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris{p}
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
  ...
  Removing netris (0.52-9) ...
  Purging configuration files for netris (0.52-9) ...

Again "aptitude purge ~c", but package being netris:i386:

  # aptitude install netris:i386
  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    netris:i386
  0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B/37.9 kB of archives. After unpacking 135 kB will be used.
  Selecting previously unselected package netris:i386.
  ...
  Preparing to unpack .../netris_0.52-9_i386.deb ...
  Unpacking netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...
  ...
  Setting up netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude remove netris:i386
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris:i386
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 135 kB will be freed.
  ...
  Removing netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

  # aptitude purge ~c
  Package netris:i386 is not installed, so it will not be removed
  The following packages will be REMOVED:
    netris:i386{p}
  0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
  Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
  ...
  Removing netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...
  Purging configuration files for netris:i386 (0.52-9) ...

So I am not sure about what was wrong at the time, but I think that this
bug is not present anymore.

Cheers.
-- 
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montezelo at gmail.com>