[gutsy] Aptitude doesn't handle recommends properly & doesn't remove unneeded dependencies automatically

[Craig Sampson]

Binary package hint: aptitude

Aptitude 0.4.5.4

Upgrade from feisty minimal install to gutsy minimal install. Opened aptitude, turn off 'automatically install recommended packages', try to install ubuntu-desktop. The trouble starts here, aptitude is trying to install all the dependency packages as simple 'installs' rather than dependency installs (with the 'A' flag) and is pulling in all the recommends for everything. Makes no difference if the 'automatically install recommended packages' flag is on or off.

Tried deleting .aptitude, no change.

Cheers,
Craig

[Craig Sampson (ubuntu-psi-aus)]

This turned out not to be an aptitude fault after all. As I've suffered this condition since the first few days of the gutsy development I started to wonder if 'something' had been left behind causing this strange behaviour. After some snooping the following was found:

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01ubuntu

Inside the 01ubuntu file were some directives which caused all meta packages to have their recommends dependencies installed by default no matter what apt-get or aptitude were instructed to do.

Removing 01ubuntu cleared up the problem.

Cheers,
Craig

[Craig Sampson (ubuntu-psi-aus)]

Hmm. How does one close a bug report?

Craig

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

Whose idea was the 01ubuntu directives? This doesn't really make sense, as removing metapackages cleanly is the reason I use aptitude!

[Craig Sampson (ubuntu-psi-aus)]

Yes, I know. After a bit more thought I suspect its better to leave this bug report open - it does seem to be a bug more than a feature.

[Maciej Strzelecki (mstrzele)]

I'm confirming this behaviour on my computer. Is anybody dealing with this bug?

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

It doesn't seem like it. For a workaround, you can always edit the file.

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

NOTE: Looks like its 01autoremove, not 01ubuntu.

[ubuntu_demon (ubuntu-demon)]

This might be related to :

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyRecommendsHandling
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007/08/msg00000.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2007-November/024707.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2007-November/024711.html
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

Nope, it's not. The problem here is that Aptitude is not removing
unneeded depends automatically.

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

Looks like this is two problems in one. Changed description accordingly. Now it's way too long, so if someone could shorten it, that would be great.

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

$ dpkg -S /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01ubuntu
apt: /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove
apt: /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01ubuntu

This is a bug in the apt package, not aptitude.

[PBSurf (pbsurf)]

IMHO, the problem is that the aptitude --without-recommends option does not override the settings in apt.conf.d/01ubuntu. Command line options should have the highest precedence. At the very least, a message should be displayed if a command line option is overridden by a config file setting.

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

Making it so this option overrides the config file is the best way to
fix this, I think.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

Confirmed also in hardy

[Stefan Fleiter (stefan-fleiter)]

Confirmed also for intrepid.
Why not fix it, it is old enough.

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

the definition of meta-packages:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MetaPackages

[libertyernie (libertyernie)]

Can it be made so that installing a metapackage with aptitude, then
removing it, also automatically removes the packages that metapackage
installed? Of course, that can create its own problems.

[LK- (lk07805)]

This bug still exists.
Steps to reproduce
1. sudo aptitude install elinks - all is fine
2. sudo aptitude remove elinks - removes package elinks but does not remove it's installed dependencies

[xteejx (xteejx-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug has been marked Wishlist as it is not so much a bug, but rather an idea to implement a new feature, so it had been marked as such. Thank you for reporting this to us.

[xteejx (xteejx-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug is being closed, since the affected versions (Gutsy, Intrepid) have reached their End of Life and are no longer supported. If this bug does continue to be a problem in a supported release, i.e. 10.04, 10.10, then please file a new bug report with ubuntu-bug. Thank you.