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

[AaronSherman]

Hmm, that was overly verbose (not to mention, typo-ridden). Here's the
short version: there's currently no way to squelch the output to a non-
verbose, "did it work or not and why?" However, the documentation, as it
reads now seems to imply that such a thing is possible. The
documentation should either reflect the reality, or the program should
be fixed such that the documentation is correct. IMHO, the latter makes
more sense, but I'm not the dev, here.

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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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