[Bug 874409] Re: apt-get -q flag fails to squelch status -qq hides everything

[AaronSherman]

Your reply doesn't actually help. This is a clear bug. It's either a
docs bug (in which case the documentation should clearly state that
progress information, such as while file is being read, cannot be
silenced without silencing the entire program); or the program doesn't
behave the way the documentation describes. As a user reading those
docs, what I'm looking for when I go looking for a "quiet" option is a
way to make the program output less verbose. In the above sample output,
all most uses of the tool require (and certainly the only relevant
output to the request, given that I've requested a quiet execution) is
that the package is already installed.

Local definitions of what a "progress" message vs. and "error" message
are isn't interesting to the user. What's interesting is the result of
the command, which as far as I can tell is either the second-to-last
line or the last two lines.

If you're set in calling only marching progress percentages "progress
indications" then define a term in the documentation for "file progress
messages" and create a -q level that squelches those (e.g. -q=2 becomes
that and -q=3 becomes silent mode).

Either way, the docs are misleading right now.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/874409

Title:
  apt-get -q flag fails to squelch status -qq hides everything

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  According to the docs, apt-get install -q foo should install the
  package foo, while suppressing progress messages. It does not. Quiet
  level 2 (-qq or -q=2) will suppress those messages, but also
  suppresses errors/summary. There is no middle ground.

  Example:

  $ sudo apt-get install -q=1 mysql-server
  Reading package lists...
  Building dependency tree...
  Reading state information...
  mysql-server is already the newest version.
  0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
  $ sudo apt-get install -q=2 mysql-server
  $

  The second example is probably correct output, but the first should
  suppress "Reading package lists..." type output as they are, as
  defined in the man page, "progress indicators". Certainly -q should
  output "mysql-server is already the newest version" which amounts to
  an error message. It's arguable if the summary "0 upgraded, 0 newly
  installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded" should be included or not.
  Either way, the docs are pretty clear that the progress messages don't
  belong there at all.

  Another approach would be to add a -q=3 which does what -q=2 does now,
  and make -q=2 suppress the progress indicators, but then what exactly
  is -q=1 doing? There must be some output that it does suppress, but
  I'm not able to tell what it is.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
  Package: apt 0.8.13.2ubuntu4.2
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-11.50-generic 2.6.38.8
  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-11-generic x86_64
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Oct 14 12:13:20 2011
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
  ProcEnviron:
   LANGUAGE=en_US:en
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: apt
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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