Subject: apt: misleading error message "is to be installed"
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2023 18:58:50 +0200
Package: apt
Version: 2.6.1
Severity: minor
Hi !
I've always been puzzled by the following error message :
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The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
firefox-l10n-fr : Depends: firefox (>= 114.0.2-1) but 114.0-1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages
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Please note that I do not complain about the unability to install
the package in question but the error message itself.
Indeed, it says "[firefox] 114.0-1 is to be installed".
It's obviously wrong. Firefox is _already_ installed :
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$ dpkg -l | grep firefox
ii firefox 114.0-1 amd64 Mozilla Firefox web browser
ii firefox-l10n-fr 114.0-1 all French language package for Firefox
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The error message says that firefox-l10n-fr depends on a newer
version of firefox (114.0.2-1). So, the firefox-l10n-fr package
cannot be installed because I have an "older" version of firefox.
What the error message does not tell us is why the newer version
of firefox cannot be installed and thus why the wanted package
connot be installed as a result.
The line "The following information may help to resolve the
situation:" is thus plainly wrong since the displayed message
absolutly does not help resolve the situation...
-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (100, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-9-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_USER, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=fr
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii adduser 3.134
ii debian-archive-keyring 2023.3
ii gpgv 2.2.40-1.1
ii libapt-pkg6.0 2.6.1
ii libc6 2.36-9
ii libgcc-s1 13.1.0-6
ii libgnutls30 3.7.9-2
ii libseccomp2 2.5.4-1+b3
ii libstdc++6 13.1.0-6
ii libsystemd0 252.11-1
Versions of packages apt recommends:
ii ca-certificates 20230311
Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn apt-doc <none>
ii aptitude 0.8.13-5
ii dpkg-dev 1.21.22
ii gnupg 2.2.40-1.1
ii gnupg2 2.2.40-1.1
ii powermgmt-base 1.37
-- no debconf information