aptitude does not respect /etc/apt/preferences

[Bruce Miller]

Binary package hint: aptitude

~$ cat /etc/apt/preferences
Package: backintime-common backintime-kde4
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 810

Package: *
Pin: release a=karmic
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: *
Pin: release a=jaunty-updates
Pin-Priority: 701

Package: *
Pin: release a=jaunty
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 650

Package: firefox-3.5
Pin: version 3.5.5*
Pin-Priority: 1001
bruce@Xenophon:~$ apt-cache policy firefox-3.5
firefox-3.5:
  Installed: 3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
  Candidate: 3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
  Package pin: 3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
  Version table:
     3.5.7~hg20091201r26621+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~umd1~karmic 1001
        800 http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main Packages
 *** 3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1 1001
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.5.3+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu6 1001
        800 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
bruce@Xenophon:~$ sudo aptitude --with-recommends full-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
The following packages are BROKEN:
  firefox-3.5-branding
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/159kB of archives. After unpacking 49.2kB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  firefox-3.5-branding: Depends: firefox-3.5 (= 3.5.7~hg20091201r26621+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~umd1~karmic) but 3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1 is installed.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Upgrade the following packages:
firefox-3.5 [3.5.5+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1 (karmic-updates, karmic-security, now) -> 3.5.7~hg20091201r26621+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~umd1~karmic (karmic)]

Score is 80

Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q
Abandoning all efforts to resolve these dependencies.
Abort.
bruce@Xenophon:~$

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Dec 2 01:50:34 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: aptitude 0.4.11.11-1ubuntu6
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: aptitude
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Craig Ringer (ringerc)]

Ouch. This just "upgraded" my netatalk package, replacing my openssl-enabled version and knocking all the Mac OS 9 clients used for running critical legacy apps off the network. Yes, I should've noticed it in the (huge) list of packages affected, but then aptitude shouldn't have upgraded it either.

$ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/netatalk
Package: netatalk
Pin: origin ""
Pin-Priority: 1001

Prefer aptitude over apt-get, indeed.

[Craig Ringer (ringerc)]

Correction. My issue is, more strictly, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/aptitude/+bug/508545 on aptitude 0.4.11.11 (ubuntu 10.04)