[Aptitude-devel] Bug#799934: aptitude: Package metadata disappears for upgradable installed packages

[Guillem Jover]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.7.2-1
Severity: normal

Hi!

I'm not sure since when, probably since last aptitude update, but I'm
seeing that some of the metadata disappears in the TUI whenever there
is an upgrade for a package on the *first* aptitude TUI invocation just
after an «apt update». When going inside the package view, like this:

,--- libatk1.0-dev 2.18.0-1 ---
iuA  --\ libatk1.0-dev           unstabl -17.4 kB  2.16.0-2       2.18.0-1
  Description: Development files for the ATK accessibility toolkit
    ATK is a toolkit providing accessibility interfaces for applications or
    other toolkits. By implementing these interfaces, those other toolkits or
    applications can be used with tools such as screen readers, magnifiers, and
    other alternative input devices.

    These are the development files for ATK, needed for compilation of programs
    or toolkits which use it.
  Homepage: http://www.gtk.org/

  Tags: devel::lang:c, devel::library, implemented-in::c, role::devel-lib
  Priority: optional
  Section: libdevel
  Maintainer: Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers at lists.alioth.debia
  Architecture: amd64
  Compressed Size: 129 k
  Uncompressed Size: 1056 k
  Source Package: atk1.0
  --\ Depends (4)
    --- gir1.2-atk-1.0 (= 2.18.0-1)
    --- libatk1.0-0 (= 2.18.0-1)
    --- libglib2.0-dev (>= 2.31.2)
    --- pkg-config
  --\ Replaces (2)
    --- gir-repository-dev
    --- gir-repository-dev
  --\ Conflicts (1)
    --- libatk1.0-dev
  --- Packages which depend on libatk1.0-dev (12)
  --\ Versions of libatk1.0-dev (2)
idA  2.16.0-2                            -1073 kB
piA  2.18.0-1                    unstabl +1056 kB
`---

,--- libatk1.0-dev 2.16.0-2 ---
iuA  --\ libatk1.0-dev           unstabl -17.4 kB  2.16.0-2       2.18.0-1
  Description: Development files for the ATK accessibility toolkit
    ATK is a toolkit providing accessibility interfaces for applications or
    other toolkits. By implementing these interfaces, those other toolkits or
    applications can be used with tools such as screen readers, magnifiers, and
    other alternative input devices.

    These are the development files for ATK, needed for compilation of programs
    or toolkits which use it.

  Tags: devel::lang:c, devel::library, implemented-in::c, role::devel-lib
  Priority: optional
  Section: libdevel
  Maintainer:
  Architecture: amd64
  Compressed Size: 0
  Uncompressed Size: 1073 k
  Source Package: libatk1.0-dev
  --\ Depends (4)
    --- gir1.2-atk-1.0 (= 2.16.0-2) (UNSATISFIED)
    --- libatk1.0-0 (= 2.16.0-2) (UNSATISFIED)
    --- libglib2.0-dev (>= 2.31.2)
    --- pkg-config
  --\ Replaces (2)
    --- gir-repository-dev
    --- gir-repository-dev
  --\ Conflicts (1)
    --- libatk1.0-dev
  --- Packages which depend on libatk1.0-dev (12)
  --\ Versions of libatk1.0-dev (2)
idA  2.16.0-2                            -1073 kB
piA  2.18.0-1                    unstabl +1056 kB
`---

Notice at least the missing Homepage field, the empty Maintainer field,
and the wrong Source Package field. After exiting from aptitude, and
entering again, the metadata is there again. I've not noticed this
on the command-line with «aptitude show libatk1.0-dev=2.18.0-1», but
perhaps that's because it only happens on first usage.

I cannot reproduce with somply removing the /var/lib/apt/lists/ files,
and redoing a «apt update». It seems it requires actual new metadata
from the repository.

Thanks,
Guillem