aptitude does not retain settings

[Andrew]

Binary package hint: aptitude

1) Open aptitude using "sudo aptitude"
2) Options->Preferences
3) Change "--\ The display format for package views" to
"%c%a%M%S %p %Z %v %V %t %i
4) Hit enter
5) Hit "q" until aptitude closes
6) restart aptitude using sudo

the format was not saved.

Ubuntu Hardy
Aptitude version 0.4.9-2ubuntu5

[Andrew (andrew-rw-robinson)]

Note than manually changing "/root/.aptitude/config" and adding:
aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format "%c%a%M%S %p %Z %v %V %t %i";

works. So it seems that aptitude and sudo are conflicting it terms of where to save and restore the settings.

[Gaetan Nadon (memsize)]

I am able to reproduce the problem as described by Andrew.
Even more so, any user typed settings are not preserved. However the True/False (showing an X) type of settings are preserved.
Another way to test is to cat the ~/aptitude/config file after any change. when the settings are preserved, the file is updated right way, no need to quit and reload.
Note that the user typed settings appear to be preserved as they are kept in-memory while the program is running but are lost when the program quits.
BugSquad

Linux ubuntu 2.6.24-23-generic #1 SMP Mon Jan 26 01:04:16 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Version: 0.4.9-2ubuntu5

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

To anyone affected by this issue,

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner. This bug was reported in 2009 and there have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time.

Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy) reached end-of-life on May 12, 2011.

Do you still see a problem related to the one that was reported in a currently supported version of Ubuntu? I've tested aptitude 0.8.10 in Ubuntu 18.04 and cannot reproduce the issue so perhaps the bug has now been fixed?

Please let us know if you are still affected. Alternatively, this bug report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for aptitude (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]