[Aptitude-devel] Bug#931718: Bug#931718: new packages list forgets about old packages

[Matus UHLAR - fantomas]

>Matus UHLAR - fantomas wrote:
>> I am trying to look which packages are new in buster that were not in
>> stretch. I am using aptitude since it't great tool for browsing packages.
>>
>> until now it was easy:
>>
>> do 'f'orget new packages in aptitude
>> change sources.list to point to new release
>> do 'u'pdate packages list

On 09.07.19 18:05, Axel Beckert wrote:
>I assume you did not exit aptitude inbetween, right

I did. What I did was:

0. start with sources.list pointing to stretch archive:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    20 Jul  9 19:21 sources.list -> sources.list.stretch
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   444 Jul  8 18:27 sources.list.buster
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   450 Nov  1  2018 sources.list.stretch

1. run aptitude to see available packages. Optionally use 'f' to forget new
packages. quit aptitude

--- Installed Packages (3970)                                                   
--- Not Installed Packages (74188)
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (8)
--- Virtual Packages (11400)
--- Tasks (235)

2. change sources.list to point to buster archive.

# rm sources.list; ln -s sources.list.buster sources.list
# ls -ld sources.list*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   19 Jul  9 19:23 sources.list -> sources.list.buster
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  444 Jul  8 18:27 sources.list.buster
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  450 Nov  1  2018 sources.list.stretch

3. run aptitude, see only installed packages marked as obsolete:

--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (3978)                                
--- Virtual Packages (570)
--- Tasks (2)

4. run 'u'pdate packages list, see no old packages, but all uninstalled as
new:

--- Security Updates (1)                                                        
--- Upgradable Packages (3099)
--- New Packages (82647)
--- Installed Packages (442)
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (436)
--- Virtual Packages (28449)
--- Tasks (235)

>> but now, when I do this, aptitude seems to forget all info about packages
>> previously available.
>
>So every package is listed under "New Packages"? I can't reproduce
>this.

every package that is not installed is shown as new.

>I just did the following inside an uptodate Stretch pbuilder chroot:
>
>* Start "aptitude"

[...]

>* Press Ctrl-Z
>* Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and change any occurrence of "stretch" to
>  "buster".
>* Called "fg" to get aptitude into the foreground again.
>* Pressed "u" in aptitude's TUI.

I haven't tried changing sources.list while aptitude is running.

>Now aptitude shows me this view:

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Actions  Undo  Package  Resolver  Search  Options  Views  Help
>C-T: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Preview/Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
>aptitude 0.8.7 @ c6
>--- Upgradable Packages (111)
>--- New Packages (13184)
>--- Installed Packages (2)
>--- Not Installed Packages (43508)
>--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages (15)
>--- Virtual Packages (14460)

I can confirm this works. Just as the "apt update" hack, I consider this a
hack too.

as I said before, the jessie version of aptitude worked as described even
when I quit aptitude in between.

I usually change packages list, run 'u'pdate and then browse/upgrade
packages. I didn't see the need (nor I had an idea) of changing sources.list
while aptitude is running.

>Maybe you can post even more verbose steps how to reproduce this.
>Otherwise I have no idea what could be different with your setup to
>cause such a different behaviour.

I hope I have described it thoroughly enough.
Thanks for the hint.

-- 
Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uhlar at fantomas.sk ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
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