[Pkg-zsh-devel] Bug#962135: Bug#962135: patch for bugs 962133 and 962135

[Vincent Lefevre]

Hi Axel,

On 2020-06-03 20:28:11 +0200, Axel Beckert wrote:
> Daniel: Would you review it for upstream inclusion?
> 
> > I've added a note about that:
> > 
> > # Note: Packages may be marked as "deinstall" or "purge", i.e. selected
> > # for deinstallation or to be purged (see dpkg(1) man page); this means
> > # that the operation has not been completed yet. In the meantime, such
> > # packages may still be installed (if marked as purge, one is not sure,
> > # though, as the package could have been uninstalled but not purged yet),
> > # so that purge and remove operations remain valid.
> 
> *sigh* IMHO this is highly misleading.
> 
> The difference between dpkg "states" (i.e. the current state) and
> "selection states" (i.e. the wanted state) only matters if you use
> dselect, which nearly nobody does nowadays.
> 
> So please do _not_ refer to "selection states" in such places since
> "selected for deinstallation" always sounds as if deinstallation is
> imminent while it in 99.9% of all cases already has happened, possibly
> even years ago.

Well, the dpkg(1) man page says "selection states" and
"selected for deinstallation":

  Package selection states
    install
           The package is selected for installation.

    hold   A  package  marked  to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless
           forced to do that with option --force-hold.

    deinstall
           The package is selected for  deinstallation  (i.e.  we  want  to
           remove all files, except configuration files).

    purge  The  package  is  selected  to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
           everything from system directories, even configuration files).

    unknown
           The package selection is unknown.  A package that is also  in  a
           not-installed  state,  and  with an ok flag will be forgotten in
           the next database store.

Do you mean that this man page should be modified?

> > My patch also removes "deinstalled" from _deb_packages as it does not
> > seem to be used (and should be useless).
> 
> Not sure if this is wanted. That code might have been made "complete"
> on purpose for 3rd-party (or future internal) usage. I'd not remove it.

Perhaps, but why aren't there equivalent functions for the "install"
and "purge" states, then?

Note that this is not documented, so I thought that this was just
internal, and 3rd party code should have its own functions.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent at vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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