Why apt holds something back, was - Re: Learn from suse install to improve my Ubuntu install?

[Scott Kitterman]

On Thursday 10 August 2006 10:34, ubuntu at rio.vg wrote:

> (As an aside, this should probably be in another thread, but is there
> any way possible to get apt to tell you WHY a package is in its "Held
> back" list?  I know you can try things like dist-upgrade, but that's
> really a microsoft way of doing things.  I'd like to know WHY, rather
> than just keep trying things to see if it works.)

Usually if I use -V (note the caps) it shows what versions are involved and 
that's generally enough of a hint for me.  From man apt-get:

       -V, --verbose-versions
              Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages. 
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Show-Versions.

Last time I had a problem (upgrading to KDE 3.5.4) things were pretty verbose:

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/55547

I did install some extra apt utilities.  Here is what I currently have:

apt  0.6.43.3ubuntu2  Advanced front-end for dpkg
apt-listbugs  0.0.49ubuntu1  Lists critical bugs before each apt installa
apt-listchanges  2.59-0.2ubuntu7   Display change history from .deb archives
apt-rdepends  1.3.0-1  Recursively lists package dependencies
apt-utils   0.6.43.3ubuntu2  APT utility programs

Only apt and apt-utils are standard.

Scott K