[Pkg-puppet-devel] Bug#532398: Bug#532398: trying to pull packages from backports may introduce 'dependency hell'

[Jayen Ashar]

Matthew Palmer wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:44:46AM +1000, Jayen Ashar wrote:
>> How can I set aptitude as my preferred package provider globally?  I  
>> can't find any documentation on it, and a google search for "global  
>> preferred package provider" (and variants) doesn't give me anything 
>> useful.
> 
> Default the provider for the Package type to be aptitude.  There's docs on
> that.

I really can't find them.  I've search for "default provider" (and 
variants) and still can't find it.  All I can find are things saying 
puppet chooses a default provider, based on the os.  I can't actually 
find the name nor location of a global setting.  Could you please 
provide a pointer?  Thanks.

>> Is there any documentation on why apt-get is the default for  
>> debian/ubuntu, when aptitude is installed?
> 
> Because nobody's put forward a patch to do it differently.
> 
> Your problem isn't aptitude vs apt-get, though -- apt-get is perfectly
> capable of resolving and installing dependencies.  My guess is that you
> haven't setup your preferences correctly to tell Puppet to install dependent
> packages from your backports repo:
> 
>   APT prefers stable
>   APT policy: (500, 'stable')
>     
> Basically, your system config is screwed, and it's not Puppet's fault.  Nor
> will switching to aptitude solve your problem (unless it ignores repo
> preferences).

If my system config were screwed, or I didn't set backports in my 
preferences, then I would have the opposite problem, and backports would 
take precedence over stable, since backports contains higher versions. 
The bug report didn't include my apt_preferences, which contains:
   Package: *
   Pin: release a=lenny-backports
   Pin-Priority: 200

Furthermore, I've tested apt-get and aptitude, and while 
"/usr/bin/apt-get -q -y -o DPkg::Options::=--force-confold install 
openoffice.org-core=1:3.0.1-11~bpo50+2" doesn't do what I want, 
"/usr/bin/aptitude -q -y -o DPkg::Options::=--force-confold install 
openoffice.org-core=1:3.0.1-11~bpo50+2" does.  (Although I realize 
auto-resolving with aptitude would give me things like:
   The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

   Remove the following packages:
   openoffice.org
   openoffice.org-style-andromeda

whereas apt-get would not be so bold, I think this is generally the 
preferred behavior, rather than being thrown into dependency hell.)

Thanks,
Jayen
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