"apt-get --ignore-missing install" fails when it can't find a package
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
apt (Ubuntu) |
Opinion
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: apt
I have a script for configuring Ubuntu after installation. I'd like to be able to run one apt-get command to download and install all the packages I normally use. Unfortunately, the availability of a package varies over time and release. Upon reviewing the manpages, it appears that "--ignore-missing" should do what I want, but it still causes apt-get to fail:
sudo apt-get --ignore-missing install kdvi; echo $?
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package kdvi
100
Now, I could loop and run "apt-get install" for every package, ignoring the exit codes, but that doesn't seem to be the way apt-get is supposed to be used.
If --ignore-missing does something other than what I want, the manual pages need to make clear exactly what it does. Furthermore it seems reasonable to request an option to allow apt-get to proceed even if it doesn't find all the requested packages - failing to install ANY of the specified packages when one isn't present seems to be the wrong behavior in this context.
ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Jan 24 21:31:21 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: apt 0.7.23.1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=C
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSign
SourcePackage: apt
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic x86_64
I believe aptitude would be a better fit for your usage.