Unable to install group of packages with `sudo apt install language-pack-*` (star or asterisk at the end of package names)

[Norbert]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Have Ubuntu 20.04 LTS installed
2. Try to execute the installation of packages with similar names, i.e.

     sudo apt install language-pack-*

Expected result:
* APT installs all packages started with `language-pack-`.

Actual results:
* APT does not install packages started with `language-pack-`, shows error instead:

$ sudo apt install language-pack-*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package language-pack-*

---

Note: the `sudo apt-get install language-pack-*` works as expected, will install 391 packages.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: apt 1.9.7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-9.12-generic 5.4.3
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-9-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu15
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
Date: Mon Jan 20 22:33:41 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-01-19 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Alpha amd64 (20200119)
SourcePackage: apt
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

That's correct. I have removed that. You have to use apt install ?name(^language-pack-.*) or similar, soon you can also use ~nlanguage-pack-.*

For more details, see

https://lists.debian.org/deity/2020/01/msg00051.html

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

apt-get will soon issue deprecation warnings so you don't get confused by it.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

This is not user-friendly at all.
And it breaks compatibility with previous Ubuntu releases (16.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS from which users will upgrade to 20.04 LTS soon).

Here you are attacking user habits, this will not be pleasant for the end-users (and especially newbies).
You should discuss such actions in more public-mass form, other way this is a bit like GNOME'ish behavior with their silent feature removal :(

Also why are you sure that putting *experimental* package version to the LTS release is a good idea? Are you sure that it would be enough thoroughly tested before final FeatureFreeze?
I'll recommend to stay with version from *sid* by the way.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

I am aware that this is breaking compatibility, which is why I started doing it in the apt tool, as it's for interactive use, not script use.

The change to remove regular expressions is absolutely necessary, as it's currently a somewhat huge risk if you have packages with + in their name and they get removed from the archive. I'm currently evaluating feedback on whether I should add fnmatch matching - which should not have any overlap with package names back in.

WRT experimental - APT development is aligned with Ubuntu development, hence Ubuntu devel always ships the latest APT. The reason the latest APT is not in unstable yet is that there is one more ABI break coming.