Received: (at submit) by bugs.debian.org; 26 Sep 2001 17:48:32 +0000 From p@dirac.org Wed Sep 26 12:48:32 2001 Return-path: Received: from adsl-64-164-47-8.dsl.scrm01.pacbell.net (satan.diablo.localnet) [64.164.47.8] by master.debian.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 1 (Debian)) id 15mInQ-0005e8-00; Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:48:32 -0500 Received: from p by satan.diablo.localnet with local (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15mIms-0000K9-00; Wed, 26 Sep 2001 10:47:58 -0700 From: Peter Jay Salzman Subject: apt: inelegant behavior -- broken redundancy with dpkg/dselect To: submit@bugs.debian.org X-Mailer: bug 3.3.10 Message-Id: Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 10:47:58 -0700 Delivered-To: submit@bugs.debian.org Package: apt Version: 0.5.3 Severity: wishlist i recently found out that apt's knowledge of available packages can be different from dpkg/dselect. it's my understanding that "apt-get update" will update apt's knowledge of available package, but not dpkg/dselect. it's also my understanding that "dselect update" will update both apt and dselect/dpkg. this asymmetric behavior is extremely inelegant, and borders on being an outright bug. in the best of all worlds, apt and dselect would be peers -- front ends for dpkg. or whatever the low-level package manager tool is (dpkg-deb?). i asked about this on debian-user, and all the responses were the same. paraphrased: "yeah, i didn't realize that myself for the longest time. it's very inelegant, but that's the way it is" i think we have a situation where alot of people agree there's a weakness here. the debian's package management is so much better than everyone else's that debian should strive to fix any possible problems or inelegance in it. is there a reason for the asymmetric nature of apt and dselect/dpkg that i'm not privy to? thanks for listening, pete -- System Information Debian Release: testing/unstable Kernel Version: Linux satan 2.4.9 #1 SMP Thu Sep 20 08:11:05 PDT 2001 i686 unknown Versions of the packages apt depends on: ii libc6 2.2.4-1 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone ii libstdc++2.10- 2.95.4-0.01090 The GNU stdc++ library