[Aptitude-devel] Bug#608811: aptitude: Should prefer to install package in experimental rather than no version at all

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Control: tags -1 + wontfix


Hi,

2011-01-03 17:16 Nelson A. de Oliveira:
>Package: aptitude
>Version: 0.6.3-3.2
>Severity: wishlist
>
>Hi!
>
>See:
>
>=====
># aptitude install transmission-cli
>The following NEW packages will be installed:
>  transmission-cli{b}
>0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
>Need to get 378 kB of archives. After unpacking 811 kB will be used.
>The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>  transmission-cli: Depends: transmission-common (= 2.03-2) but 2.11-1 is installed.
>The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
>
>     Keep the following packages at their current version:
>1)     transmission-cli [Not Installed]
>
>
>
>Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
>The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
>
>     Install the following packages:
>1)     transmission-cli [2.11-1 (experimental)]
>
>
>
>Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
>=====
>
>The first option is to keep the current version (to not install the
>package); it's necessary to ask for the next solution to get what I
>want.

aptitude doesn't know that you prefer to install the version from
experimental than the one from unstable, if it's pinned lower:

>=====
># apt-cache policy transmission-cli
>transmission-cli:
>  Installed: (none)
>  Candidate: 2.03-2
>  Version table:
>     2.11-1 0
>        100 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main i386 Packages
>     2.03-2 0
>        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid/main i386 Packages
>=====
>
>While I know that the install candidate is 2.03-2 (and aptitude will try
>to install it), aptitude should prefer to install the new package at
>experimental. The first logical solution seems to be "install the
>version from experimental"

There are safety mechanisms in aptitude to not install versions from
"non-default versions", and there are many bugs already complaining that
it's very easy for them to install versions in aptitude inadvertently,
even when aptitude prints "experimental" in the process.

So many people would not agree that installing from "experimental" is
the first logical solution.


>(since it already has all the dependencies
>installed and it has been asked to install it) instead not installing the
>desired package.

The request was to install the package from the (implicit) default
version.

To install particular versions or from other suites (from "man
aptitude"):

  install

    Install one or more packages. The packages should be listed after
    the “install” command; if a package name contains a tilde character
    (“~”) or a question mark (“?”), it will be treated as a search
    pattern and every package matching the pattern will be installed
    (see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference
    manual).

    To select a particular version of the package, append “=<version>”
    to the package name: for instance, “aptitude install
    apt=0.3.1”. Similarly, to select a package from a particular
    archive, append “/<archive>” to the package name: for instance,
    “aptitude install apt/experimental”. You cannot specify both an
    archive and a version for a package.

So marking this as +wontfix.


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