Colin Watson wrote: > I wish, though, that apt-get would tell you that it hasn't updated > dpkg's database. The 'apt-get update' versus 'dselect update' thing is > an incredibly frequently asked question.
I wish apt-get update (and more generally the internal update functions that are used by all the apt frontends) would just update the available file for you. It wouldn't be hard to do. I've asked Jason to do this, and IIRC his answer was that he doesn't want to do it because apt maintains more complex package list information than can be represented in dpkg's available file (especially if you have apt set to use multiple distributons at the same time, etc). I find this very unsatisfactory. Yes, generating an available file whenever apt-get update is run may not be technically perfect, and the available file will be missing information apt knows. And yet various things related to the available file not being updated have become very common FAQ's on debian-user and elsewhere. Not having an up-to-date available file breaks a lot of stuff, like: * tasksel * grep-available * dpkg -p That should _just work_ in a high-quality Debian system. I use 'dselect update' myself, and encourage others to do so as well, but some people recoil in fear at the mere mention of dselect. -- see shy jo
