I realize this is a dev list, and apologies if this is a FAQ, but I've looked for but haven't seen answers to this question: where to go (e.g., what forums, lists, IRCs, other sites) for answers to questions about `aptitude`? Questions like
1 How to copy text from the interactive, character-mode-graphical `aptitude` (i.e., `sudo aptitude`)? 2 How to view and work with only the broken packages, or a subset of broken? What I mean, why I ask: >From using desktop ubuntu for a few years (and server ubuntu for longer, and mint for a few months) I have some experience with APT. Mostly I have used non-interactive command-line `aptitude` (i.e., `sudo aptitude <update|full-upgrade|install|remove|purge> ...`) rather than, e.g., * the interactive, character-mode-graphical `aptitude` (i.e., `sudo aptitude`) * full GUIs (e.g., synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center) This worked well, because I kept up-to-date and because ubuntu shielded me from massive breakage. However it does require (more or less) periodic reinstalls, so yesterday I installed LMDE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1604 which is based on debian testing (actually, a subset thereof). I'm presently barely functional (e.g., I have emacs and firefox), thanks largely to the "update pack" functionality in mintupdate-debian http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781 and the mint intermediate repos me@it:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest testing main contrib non-free deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free and I was able to me@it:~$ sudo apt-get install aptitude > Suggested packages: > tasksel debtags > Recommended packages: > apt-xapian-index > The following packages will be upgraded: > aptitude ... me@it:~$ sudo aptitude install apt-xapian-index tasksel debtags > The following NEW packages will be installed: > apt-xapian-index debtags tasksel tasksel-data{a} However I currently - have 888 updates (per mu-d) - have 69 broken packages (per `aptitude`) - need to get some bigger apps/functions running (e.g., chromium, libreoffice, DVD playing) - fear breaking big things (e.g., X, GNOME) I suspect getting out of this hole quickly will require more knowledge of APT etc than I currently have, so I'm trying to learn the interactive `aptitude` via http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/projects/aptitude/doc/en/index.html while cleaning up my breakage. This specific usecase leads me to wonder 1 How to copy text from the interactive `aptitude`? I like to keep a log when working on non-trivial problems, hence, e.g., I'd like to cut'n'paste the text from the lower pane of the interactive `aptitude` that indicates that, currently, my openoffice-common conflicts with libtextcat-data and libreoffice-common (rather than typing by eye). 2 How to view and work with only the broken packages, or a subset of broken? First I'm trying to cleanup my openoffice-related breakage. (I've been using libreoffice, so am planning to nuke packages= openoffice* anyway.) I updated, then typed * 'b' to highlight the broken packages * '/' to search for openoffice * '-' to delete openoffice-base (the first found). * '!' to apply Deleting openoffice-base didn't break anything, so I'd just like to delete that. However when I * 'g' to preview pending actions I see that `aptitude` wants to delete 10 packages, install 109 packages, remove 5 packages, and upgrade 5 packages. (I'll also admit not yet understanding the difference between 'delete' and 'remove'.) So I'm wondering, * How do I make `aptitude` confine itself to just deleting openoffice-base, without selecting each of the other 128 packages and hitting '-' 128 times? Or must I bail to the non-interactive CLI? * Is there a view just of broken packages? E.g., I'd like to see just the broken packages listed in the upper pane. Then, if I mark a package in that list for deletion, and that would break another package, that broken-to-be package would itself show in the list. Feel free to reply directly to me or to forward, and TIA, Tom Roche <[email protected]> _______________________________________________ Aptitude-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aptitude-devel
