On Sun, 15 Sep 2002, Marc Singer wrote: > Then it seems ever more peculiar that apt should abort when the file > is missing. Why should it care about the status file when it is > invoked to download packages?
Because apt is not a package downloader. It is a system upgrader/installer. When you invoke -d, apt just skips the installation steps. However, it still takes the system's state into account to figure out what it needs to install. > What I'm saying is that there are some assumptions coded into apt and > dpkg that make them difficult to use in ways that are useful, but not > as originally intended. What is the harm in making them more > flexible? You are assuming apt can download packages. It can't. It installs and upgrade packages.
