Evan, in comment #7 comment #6 was stated to be meant for another bug.
Current state in Precise (apt 0.8.16~exp5ubuntu14.2) is that "remove" also selects another package. I cannot say if previously only "purge" was misbehaving, but here we go:
% sudo apt-get install php5-mhash Ubuntu precise (i686) [...] Note, selecting 'php5-common' instead of 'php5-mhash'
% sudo apt-get remove php5-mhash Ubuntu precise (i686) [...] Note, selecting 'php5-common' instead of 'php5-mhash'
Evan, in comment #7 comment #6 was stated to be meant for another bug.
Current state in Precise (apt 0.8.16~ exp5ubuntu14. 2) is that "remove" also selects another package.
I cannot say if previously only "purge" was misbehaving, but here we go:
% sudo apt-get install php5-mhash Ubuntu precise (i686)
[...]
Note, selecting 'php5-common' instead of 'php5-mhash'
% sudo apt-get remove php5-mhash Ubuntu precise (i686)
[...]
Note, selecting 'php5-common' instead of 'php5-mhash'