apt-get installs unrelated package in place of virtual package

[Igor]

i attempted to install git, but because it's a virtual package, apt decided to replace it with gnuit -- something totally unrelated -- without prompting me:

root@piglet:/etc/apt# aptitude install git
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Note: selecting "gnuit" instead of the
      virtual package "git"
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gnuit
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 21 not upgraded.
Need to get 331kB of archives. After unpacking 1,409kB will be used.
.... etc ...
root@piglet:/etc/apt# cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 9.10 \n \l
root@piglet:/etc/apt# aptitude --version
aptitude 0.4.11.11 compiled at Sep 28 2009 13:00:40
Compiler: g++ 4.4.1
Compiled against:
  apt version 4.8.1
  NCurses version 5.7
  libsigc++ version: 2.0.18
  Ept support enabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 5.7.20090803
  cwidget version: 0.5.12
  Apt version: 4.8.1

the same thing happens with apt-get and aptitude

[Igor (igor47)]

after submitting the bug, it occurred to me that git might be a virtual package for gnuit instead of git-core -- in this case, it's still kind of a bug, but more of a name space collision.