[Aptitude-devel] Bug#827508: aptitude: Will not remove recommended package

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Control: tags -1 + moreinfo


Hi Itaï,

2016-06-17 07:27 Itaï BEN YAACOV:
>Package: aptitude
>Version: 0.8.1-1
>Severity: normal
>
>Dear Maintainer,
>
>I have aspell and aspell-xx installed on my system, and I want to remove them.
>After marking removal and pressing 'g' it does nothing - just displays a red
>status line with some suggestions it does not try to enact.
>
>I believe this is some bug in the new treatment of 'Recommends':
>libaspell Recommends an aspell dictionary, and this is about to be broken.

For the record, this happens because of this change in 0.8:

  * Actions involving unfulfilled Recommends invoke the resolver
    (Closes: #819636)

    With APT::Install-Recommends="true" (the default), actions resulting in
    unavailable Recommends (e.g., the recommended package is upgraded instead of
    remaining in the required version) invoke the resolver, for the user to take
    decision.

    This is because now the resolver monitors situation when the
    PolicyBrokenCount is not zero, before it was only taken BrokenCount into
    account (it was the only count available when the code was set up).
	    

>But instead of just warning me about it, aptitude
>a. Merely suggets action to resolve this, without even telling me what
>the actual problem is (no broken packages)

The hint is at the bottom of the screen.  To see the details of the
current conflict you have to type 'e', to examine the solution, which
will show:

 --\ Leave the following recommendations unresolved:
   aspell recommends aspell-en | aspell-dictionary | aspell6a-dictionary
   libaspell15 recommends aspell-en | aspell-dictionary | aspell6a-dictionary



>b. When Depends is broken pressing 'g' enacts the current suggested resolution
>and we can move to actual installation / removal.  Here, it does not enact it
>(which is OK - these are merely Recommends which are broken) but does not move
>on to the 'let's do it' screen -- simply a flicker (so it thinks it is doing
>something) but just staying where we were.  Ad infinitum.
>
>I do not want to set APT::Install-Recommends False , since it is useful.
>I just want to be able to say, OK, fine, it breaks a Recommends, now can we
>do it already ?

For that you have to type '!', to apply the desired solution.

In this case, the first solution offered is just acknowledging that you
are happy to break these recommended dependencies, which is equivalent
to "OK, fine, it breaks a Recommends, now can we do it already ?"


So I don't consider this to be a bug.  With the previous behaviour it
breaks recommends without acknowledgement or even showing any prominent
warning in some cases, which is problematic.


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