[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
$ LANG=C apt-get -s install mail-transport-agent Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Package mail-transport-agent is a virtual package provided by: xmail 1.27-1.1+b1 ssmtp 2.64-4 sendmail-bin 8.14.4-2 qmail-run 2.0.2 postfix 2.8.2-1+b1 nullmailer 1:1.04-1.2 msmtp-mta 1.4.23-1 masqmail 0.2.27-1.2 exim4-daemon-light 4.75-1 exim4-daemon-heavy 4.75-1 esmtp-run 1.2-5 dma 0.0.2010.06.17-10 courier-mta 0.65.3-2 citadel-mta 7.84-3+b1 You should explicitly select one to install. E: Package 'mail-transport-agent' has no installation candidate mail-transport-agent is such a virtual package which never had and will never have a version available for installation, still it can be useful to see which packages provide it. It has other usecases as well - maybe more obscure, more developer centered -, but you asked for just one. :) The command behind the tabcompletion is 'apt-cache pkgnames' and is designed to be as fast as possible. We would defeat the usefulness if we run full-fledged tests on these names as it would slow it down… -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 304261 *** https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/304261 This is actually a duplicate. And yes, pkgnames only shows non-virtual packages, DonKult, at least it did not give me mail-transport-agent. ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 304261 libgnutls13 has no installation candidate * You can subscribe to bug 304261 by following this link: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bash-completion/+bug/304261/+subscribe -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
*** This bug is a duplicate of bug 304261 *** https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/304261 And the other bug is thus marked as Fix released. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
Not a bug. I don't think it's useful to complicate this thing just to get some packages filtered out in some circumstances. All those packages exist in the cache and you may need them, even if they are not real. ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed = Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
Tell me just one use case when I might need packages that don't exist (and probably never will again). -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
I changed pkgnames in two places of file /etc/bash_completion.d/apt to pkgnames --installable and opened a new terminal. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
Re: [Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
I see the misunderstanding - there is no such option, apt-cache needs to be expanded by C/C++ coding to achieve that goal. I thought you might be interested in implementing that. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
What I'm saying is that it's useless to display such packages in auto- completion so it should be changed. I tried to add an --installable option to pkgnames but it didn't seem to help. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
I agree, it would be a good change to apt to add such an option. May I ask how far you've got with the --installable option idea? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
Thanks for taking the time to report this issue! However, it seems to be explained in the man page of apt-cache. Some background information: /etc/bash_completion.d/apt uses the following line to generate the packagenames: COMPREPLY=( $( apt-cache --no-generate pkgnames $cur \ From the manpage of apt-cache: pkgnames [ prefix ] This command prints the name of each package APT knows. The optional argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output is suitable for use in a shell tab complete function and the output is generated extremely quickly. This command is best used with the --generate option. Note that a package which APT knows of is not necessarily available to download, installable or installed, e.g. virtual packages are also listed in the generated list. I tried to check if a package can be installed via a shellscript, but run time is limiting, for completeness here's the script I tested: #!/bin/bash pkgs=$(apt-cache pkgnames python2) for pkg in $pkgs do cand=$(apt-cache policy $pkg | grep Candidate) if [[ $cand =~ Candidate: (none) ]] then uninstallable=$uninstallable $pkg else installable=$installable $pkg fi done echo $installable It seems the best solution would be to modify apt-cache and maybe add an option '--installable' to the pkgname argument to only show packages that have a candidate. ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Status: New = Confirmed ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided = Wishlist -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 Title: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The example packages you list still exist - they are dummy transitional packages - i'm therefore closing this bug. If you find other packages listed as completion targets which are genuinely non-existant, please re-open. ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Status: New = Invalid -- Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
Right, I gave incorrect examples. Some valid ones are firefox-3.6, firefox-adblock-plus, python2.1 etc. In many cases (like this python one) all obsolete python versions have listings like: $ apt-cache policy python2.5 python2.5: Installed: (none) Candidate: (none) Version table: ** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu) Status: Invalid = New -- Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
[Bug 600463] Re: Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages
** Attachment added: Dependencies.txt http://launchpadlibrarian.net/51215221/Dependencies.txt ** Attachment added: ProcEnviron.txt http://launchpadlibrarian.net/51215222/ProcEnviron.txt -- Bash auto-completion for apt-get aptitude shows non-existent packages https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600463 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
