It even says so in the apt(8) man page itself: The requested action can be overridden for specific packages by append a plus (+) to the package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it.
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1699698 Title: apt removes package when packagename ends with - Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: It turns out that if you mess up (like in your system automation setup) - and ask for installing a package named perl-byacc- (where you wanted to install perl-byacc-subname) - apt just chooses to remove perl-byacc.. even if perl-byacc is not installed - it returns 0 - meaning everything seems okay :( # apt install perl-byacc Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: linux-headers-4.4.0-64 linux-headers-4.4.0-64-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-67 linux-headers-4.4.0-67-generic linux-image-4.4.0-64-generic linux-image-4.4.0-67-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-64-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-67-generic Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following NEW packages will be installed: perl-byacc 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 34 not upgraded. Need to get 105 kB of archives. After this operation, 203 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://repo01.nms.tdc.net/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 perl-byacc amd64 2.0-7 [105 kB] Fetched 105 kB in 0s (2.537 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package perl-byacc. (Reading database ... 221007 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../perl-byacc_2.0-7_amd64.deb ... Unpacking perl-byacc (2.0-7) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ... Setting up perl-byacc (2.0-7) ... update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/pbyacc to provide /usr/bin/yacc (yacc) in auto mode # apt install perl-byacc- Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: linux-headers-4.4.0-64 linux-headers-4.4.0-64-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-67 linux-headers-4.4.0-67-generic linux-image-4.4.0-64-generic linux-image-4.4.0-67-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-64-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-67-generic Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be REMOVED: perl-byacc 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 34 not upgraded. After this operation, 203 kB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y (Reading database ... 221041 files and directories currently installed.) Removing perl-byacc (2.0-7) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ... To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1699698/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
