[Aptitude-devel] Bug#1064969: aptitude: broken dependency resolution

[Vincent Lefevre]

Control: found -1 0.8.13-6
Control: retitle -1 aptitude: broken dependency resolution

Bug still present.

For instance, the following works as expected:

cventin:~> aptitude install -s grub-common libefiboot1t64 libefivar1t64
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libefiboot1t64 libefivar1t64 
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libefiboot1{a} libefivar1{a} 
The following packages will be upgraded:
  grub-common 
1 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 2 to remove and 53 not upgraded.
Need to get 2981 kB of archives. After unpacking 6144 B will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 grub-pc-bin : Depends: grub-common (= 2.12-1) but 2.12-1.1 is to be installed
 grub2-common : Depends: grub-common (= 2.12-1) but 2.12-1.1 is to be installed
 grub-pc : Depends: grub-common (= 2.12-1) but 2.12-1.1 is to be installed
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Upgrade the following packages:                              
1)     grub-pc [2.12-1 (now, testing) -> 2.12-1.1 (unstable)]     
2)     grub-pc-bin [2.12-1 (now, testing) -> 2.12-1.1 (unstable)] 
3)     grub2-common [2.12-1 (now, testing) -> 2.12-1.1 (unstable)]

But just "aptitude install -s grub-common" does not. This is
surprising because the new grub-common package depends on both
libefiboot1t64 and libefivar1t64, so that one should expect a
similar result.

"aptitude install -s grub-common" does not propose *any* acceptable
solution. The first solution is to do nothing, which is obviously
not helpful. The fifth solution is correct concerning the libraries,
but aptitude wants to remove grub-pc and grub2-common instead of
upgrading them:

     Remove the following packages:               
1)     grub-pc [2.12-1 (now, testing)]            
2)     grub2-common [2.12-1 (now, testing)]       
3)     libefiboot1 [38-3 (now, testing, unstable)]
4)     libefivar1 [38-3 (now, testing, unstable)] 

     Install the following packages:              
5)     libefiboot1t64 [38-3.1 (unstable)]         
6)     libefivar1t64 [38-3.1 (unstable)]          

This is silly.

Going further, aptitude wants to remove more and more packages.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent at vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)