[Aptitude-devel] Bug#834028: aptitude: Should issue a warning on "aptitude hold <virtual package name>"

[Axel Beckert]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.3-1
Severity: minor

Calling "aptitude hold" with a virtual package name as parameter is
currently a no-op, but doesn't warn about this and even says "Marking
package <virtual package name> (hold)" with -v:

# aptitude search \\bwot\\b
v   firefox-esr-wot               -
v   firefox-wot                   -
v   iceweasel-wot                 -
v   wot                           -
i   xul-ext-wot                   - show which websites are trustworthy
# aptitude hold -v wot
Marking package wot (hold)
# aptitude search \\bwot\\b
v   firefox-esr-wot               -
v   firefox-wot                   -
v   iceweasel-wot                 -
v   wot                           -
i   xul-ext-wot                   - show which websites are trustworthy
# aptitude hold -v xul-ext-wot
Marking package xul-ext-wot (hold)
# aptitude search \\bwot\\b
v   firefox-esr-wot               -
v   firefox-wot                   -
v   iceweasel-wot                 -
v   wot                           -
ih  xul-ext-wot                   - show which websites are trustworthy
# aptitude unhold -v wot
Marking package wot (unhold)
# aptitude search \\bwot\\b
v   firefox-esr-wot               -
v   firefox-wot                   -
v   iceweasel-wot                 -
v   wot                           -
ih  xul-ext-wot                   - show which websites are trustworthy
# aptitude unhold -v xul-ext-wot
Marking package xul-ext-wot (unhold)
# aptitude search \\bwot\\b
v   firefox-esr-wot               -
v   firefox-wot                   -
v   iceweasel-wot                 -
v   wot                           -
i   xul-ext-wot                   - show which websites are trustworthy
#

IMHO aptitude should not silently do nothing or even claim that it does
something, but should throw a warning or even an error in such a
case. Made up example:

# aptitude hold wot
W: wot is a virtual package, hold has no effect.
#

Not sure how it should look like if -v is given.

There might be more places or situations where such a warning should be
issued:

aptitude install <virtual package name>= (i.e. a hold via suffix operators)
aptitude unhold <virtual package name>
aptitude keep <virtual package name>
[...]

-- Package-specific info:
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-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (600, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'buildd-unstable'), (400, 'stable'), (110, 'experimental'), (1, 'experimental-debug'), (1, 'buildd-experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.5.0-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common            0.8.3-1
ii  libapt-pkg5.0              1.3~pre3
ii  libboost-filesystem1.61.0  1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-iostreams1.61.0   1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-system1.61.0      1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libc6                      2.23-4
ii  libcwidget3v5              0.5.17-4+b1
ii  libgcc1                    1:6.1.1-11
ii  libncursesw5               6.0+20160625-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0v5          2.8.0-2
ii  libsqlite3-0               3.14.0-1
ii  libstdc++6                 6.1.1-11
ii  libtinfo5                  6.0+20160625-1
ii  libxapian22v5              1.2.23-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl  1.2.0-10
ii  sensible-utils                 0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
ii  apt-xapian-index                0.48
ii  aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc]  0.8.3-1
ii  debtags                         2.1.1
ii  tasksel                         3.35

-- no debconf information