On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 12:17:31PM -0400, Felipe Sateler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was heard to say: > Package: aptitude > Version: 0.4.11.4-1 > Followup-For: Bug #477038 > > The information given by aptitude now is much more cryptic and confusing: > > % aptitude search laptop-mode-tools > i laptop-mode-tools - Scripts to spin down h > % aptitude why laptop-mode-tools > i powertop Suggests laptop-mode-tools > > As seen, the ouptut is more than uninformative, it's wrong. > > Why would aptitude want to consider suggests for a possible explanation > is beyond me, too (as this doesn't cause aptitude to install > laptop-mode-tools).
Currently "why" searches for chains of dependencies from a manually installed package to the target package. It tries to find as strong a chain as possible, so if it returns a chain including a Suggests, there aren't any chains of Depends/Recommends that lead to the final package. "why" is useful to find out why a package is being algorithmically installed or held on the system, hence the name. However, in circumstances where there is no requirement for the program to be on the system, aptitude will report any other dependency chains that would lead to installing the target, even weak ones (i.e., Suggests). Why would you care? Well, I could see it being useful if you want to remove a program, for instance: you can check whether anything that's installed might be enhanced by keeping it. Daniel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
