[Bug 909329] Re: apt-get install gives stupid error message on conflicts

[matteo sisti sette]

I understand the "whishlist" part (only because there is another
command, namely aptitude, that provides a solution, otherwise this would
be a critical issue), but "opinion"? Can anybody really argue that the
error message giving no information at all about the source of the
problem is OK?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/909329

Title:
  apt-get install gives stupid error message on conflicts

Status in “apt” package in Ubuntu:
  Opinion

Bug description:
  When you try to install a package that has dependencies and some of
  the dependencies (or dependency of a dependency) has  conflicts, apt-
  get will give a nonsense, useless, plain stupid error message
  complaining about an unmet dependency at the top level instead of
  spotting the conflict.

  Example:

  ---
  $ sudo apt-get install libpcl-all
  [sudo] password for teo: 
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree       
  Reading state information... Done
  Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
  requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
  distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
  or been moved out of Incoming.
  The following information may help to resolve the situation:

  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
   libpcl-all : Depends: libpcl-1.3-all but it is not going to be installed
  E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
  ---

  The problem is NOT that package X depends on package Y, the problem is
  that some package, on which X indirectly depends, conflicts with an
  installed package.

  The error message should provide information about the problem at the
  DEEPEST level (and optionally the whole "stack" of the problem).
  Informing of the error at the most superficial level is useless.

  
  Here's the information that aptitude gives when faced with the same issue. THIS is a useful error message:

  $ aptitude -s install libpcl-all
  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    [....] 
  0 packages upgraded, 90 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
  Need to get 67.2 MB of archives. After unpacking 374 MB will be used.
  The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    libboost1.46-dev: Conflicts: libboost1.42-dev but 1.42.0-4ubuntu2 is installed.
    libboost-serialization1.46-dev: Conflicts: libboost-serialization1.42-dev but 1.42.0-4ubuntu2 is installed.
    libboost-date-time1.46-dev: Conflicts: libboost-date-time1.42-dev but 1.42.0-4ubuntu2 is installed.
  The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

        Keep the following packages at their current version:
  1)      libboost-date-time1.46-dev [Not Installed]         
  2)      libboost-filesystem-dev [Not Installed]            
  3)      libboost-filesystem1.46-dev [Not Installed]        
  4)      libboost-serialization1.46-dev [Not Installed]     
  5)      libboost-system-dev [Not Installed]                
  6)      libboost-system1.46-dev [Not Installed]            
  7)      libboost-thread-dev [Not Installed]                
  8)      libboost-thread1.46-dev [Not Installed]            
  9)      libboost1.46-dev [Not Installed]                   
  10)     libpcl-1.3-all [Not Installed]                     
  11)     libpcl-1.3-all-dev [Not Installed]                 
  12)     libpcl-all [Not Installed]                         
  13)     libpcl-apps-1.3-dev [Not Installed]                
  14)     libpcl-common-1.3-dev [Not Installed]              
  15)     libpcl-features-1.3-dev [Not Installed]            
  16)     libpcl-filters-1.3-dev [Not Installed]             
  17)     libpcl-io-1.3-dev [Not Installed]                  
  18)     libpcl-kdtree-1.3-dev [Not Installed]              
  19)     libpcl-keypoints-1.3-dev [Not Installed]           
  20)     libpcl-octree-1.3-dev [Not Installed]              
  21)     libpcl-range-image-1.3-dev [Not Installed]         
  22)     libpcl-registration-1.3-dev [Not Installed]        
  23)     libpcl-sample-consensus-1.3-dev [Not Installed]    
  24)     libpcl-search-1.3-dev [Not Installed]              
  25)     libpcl-segmentation-1.3-dev [Not Installed]        
  26)     libpcl-surface-1.3-dev [Not Installed]             
  27)     libpcl-visualization-1.3-dev [Not Installed]       


  Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
  Package: apt 0.8.16~exp5ubuntu13
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-15.24-generic 3.0.13
  Uname: Linux 3.0.0-15-generic i686
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Wed Dec 28 12:13:07 2011
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: apt
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-12-07 (20 days ago)

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