Ubuntu
apt package

  1. Bug #541438
  2. Comment #4

Comment 4 for bug 541438

Revision history for this message
Torsten Spindler (tspindler) wrote : Re: "apt-get purge" should not select another package (when the requested one in not installed and provided by another one)

I repeated your steps and installed php5-mhash and then purged php5-mhash. In both cases php5-common was installed, respectively purged.

According to the man page of apt-get this seems to be intended behaviour:

       purge
           purge is identical to remove except that packages are removed and
           purged (any configuration files are deleted too).

       remove
           remove is identical to install except that packages are removed
           instead of installed....

According to your proposal, purge and remove would no longer reflect install. I am not sure if this is a good idea. I set this bug report to incomplete for now, reflecting that the issue has to be given more thought.