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Removing packages from unofficial repositories
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Simon Ruggier
Jan 2, 2014, 1:00:02 PM1/2/14
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Hi all, I recently decided to migrate my Debian system away from deb-multimedia.org, where official packages exist. I used apt preferences to help me downgrade packages from deb-multimedia back to Debian testing, where an alternative version from testing exists. However, I would expect that most users would not have the patience to do this via apt preferences, and if there is an easier way, I was not aware of it.
I'm writing to suggest that in the long term, Debian's package management should have a general, user-friendly way to deal with situations like this, such as a mechanism to remove a repository subscription, and all package versions that came from it, while uninstalling as few as possible of the reverse dependencies.
Can anyone suggest which Debian package it would be appropriate to file this as a bug on?
I'm writing to suggest that in the long term, Debian's package management should have a general, user-friendly way to deal with situations like this, such as a mechanism to remove a repository subscription, and all package versions that came from it, while uninstalling as few as possible of the reverse dependencies.
Can anyone suggest which Debian package it would be appropriate to file this as a bug on?
Ben Armstrong
Jan 2, 2014, 1:10:04 PM1/2/14
to
Simon,
On 01/02/2014 01:52 PM, Simon Ruggier wrote:
> I'm writing to suggest that in the long term, Debian's package
> management should have a general, user-friendly way to deal with
> situations like this, such as a mechanism to remove a repository
> subscription, and all package versions that came from it, while
> uninstalling as few as possible of the reverse dependencies.
I don't think there is any appropriate package to file such a bug on as,
there can be no general way to downgrade, ever. To quote from our
infobot on irc:
"Downgrading is not, nor will ever be supported by apt. Programs change
their data in a way that can't be rolled back, and package maintainer
scripts support upgrades to new config file formats but not downgrades."
The infobot further suggests in order to remove deb-multimedia.org packages:
If you want to remove the packages from deb-multimedia.org and reinstall
the packages from Debian repositories, one could do this: dpkg --remove
--force-depends $(aptitude search
'?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Unofficial Multimedia Packages))'
--disable-columns -F%p); remove the dmm repository from sources.list;
apt-get update; apt-get install -f; install the still missing packages
which were removed in the former process ...
It is an unfortunate consequence of using third party repositories that
the process is so unfriendly to users. Since the state of the official
multimedia packages in Debian has vastly improved in recent releases,
fortunately fewer and fewer users have to go through this unpleasant
process.
Ben
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On 01/02/2014 01:52 PM, Simon Ruggier wrote:
> I'm writing to suggest that in the long term, Debian's package
> management should have a general, user-friendly way to deal with
> situations like this, such as a mechanism to remove a repository
> subscription, and all package versions that came from it, while
> uninstalling as few as possible of the reverse dependencies.
there can be no general way to downgrade, ever. To quote from our
infobot on irc:
"Downgrading is not, nor will ever be supported by apt. Programs change
their data in a way that can't be rolled back, and package maintainer
scripts support upgrades to new config file formats but not downgrades."
The infobot further suggests in order to remove deb-multimedia.org packages:
If you want to remove the packages from deb-multimedia.org and reinstall
the packages from Debian repositories, one could do this: dpkg --remove
--force-depends $(aptitude search
'?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Unofficial Multimedia Packages))'
--disable-columns -F%p); remove the dmm repository from sources.list;
apt-get update; apt-get install -f; install the still missing packages
which were removed in the former process ...
It is an unfortunate consequence of using third party repositories that
the process is so unfriendly to users. Since the state of the official
multimedia packages in Debian has vastly improved in recent releases,
fortunately fewer and fewer users have to go through this unpleasant
process.
Ben
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Виталий Филиппов
Jan 3, 2014, 6:50:01 AM1/3/14
to
> Hi all, I recently decided to migrate my Debian system away from
> deb-multimedia.org, where official packages exist. I used apt preferences
> to help me downgrade packages from deb-multimedia back to Debian testing,
> where an alternative version from testing exists. However, I would expect
> that most users would not have the patience to do this via apt
> preferences,
> and if there is an easier way, I was not aware of it.
AFAIK the apt_preferences method is rather simple:
> deb-multimedia.org, where official packages exist. I used apt preferences
> to help me downgrade packages from deb-multimedia back to Debian testing,
> where an alternative version from testing exists. However, I would expect
> that most users would not have the patience to do this via apt
> preferences,
> and if there is an easier way, I was not aware of it.
Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: 1001
With that setting 'apt-get dist-upgrade' downgrades DMO packages to
official ones. At least it did in my case.
For me, finding out the correct preference setting was the hardest part
here :)
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With best regards,
Vitaliy Filippov
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Ben Armstrong
Jan 3, 2014, 7:20:01 AM1/3/14
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On 01/03/2014 07:41 AM, О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ wrote:
> AFAIK the apt_preferences method is rather simple:
>
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=Debian
> Pin-Priority: 1001
>
> With that setting 'apt-get dist-upgrade' downgrades DMO packages to
> official ones. At least it did in my case.
>
> For me, finding out the correct preference setting was the hardest part
> here :)
Yes, but it's an unsafe operation, since downgrades are still not
> AFAIK the apt_preferences method is rather simple:
>
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=Debian
> Pin-Priority: 1001
>
> With that setting 'apt-get dist-upgrade' downgrades DMO packages to
> official ones. At least it did in my case.
>
> For me, finding out the correct preference setting was the hardest part
> here :)
supported, and also does not discriminate between DMO packages and
non-DMO packages, so this could break unrelated packages.
Ben
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Octavio Alvarez
Jan 3, 2014, 12:30:03 PM1/3/14
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On 01/03/2014 03:41 AM, О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ wrote:
> AFAIK the apt_preferences method is rather simple:
>
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=Debian
> Pin-Priority: 1001
>
> With that setting 'apt-get dist-upgrade' downgrades DMO packages to
> official ones. At least it did in my case.
Does it work if you have Debian, deb-multimedia, another third-party
> AFAIK the apt_preferences method is rather simple:
>
> Package: *
> Pin: release o=Debian
> Pin-Priority: 1001
>
> With that setting 'apt-get dist-upgrade' downgrades DMO packages to
> official ones. At least it did in my case.
repo, and you just want to remove deb-multimedia?
Thanks.
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Виталий Филиппов
Jan 3, 2014, 12:40:03 PM1/3/14
to
> Does it work if you have Debian, deb-multimedia, another third-party
> repo, and you just want to remove deb-multimedia?
If you have other 3rdparty repos, you'll also need to set 1001 for all of
> repo, and you just want to remove deb-multimedia?
them (except DMO), that should be enough.
And of course strictly speaking it may be unsafe, but I think it's OK in
case of debian-multimedia...
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Vitaliy Filippov
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Ben Armstrong
Jan 3, 2014, 3:20:01 PM1/3/14
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On 03/01/14 01:39 PM, О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫О©╫ wrote:
> If you have other 3rdparty repos, you'll also need to set 1001 for all
> of them (except DMO), that should be enough.
Simon wanted "a general, user-friendly way to deal with situations like
> If you have other 3rdparty repos, you'll also need to set 1001 for all
> of them (except DMO), that should be enough.
this". This is neither.
> And of course strictly speaking it may be unsafe, but I think it's OK in
> case of debian-multimedia...
the risk of running into the kinds of breakage inherent to downgrades
(as indicated in the quote I gave earlier). I don't think that risk
should be downplayed.
Ben
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Arthur de Jong
Jan 4, 2014, 1:40:02 PM1/4/14
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On Thu, 2014-01-02 at 12:52 -0500, Simon Ruggier wrote:
> However, I would expect that most users would not have the patience to
> do this via apt preferences, and if there is an easier way, I was not
> aware of it.
I also did this a few times. I remove the third-party repositories from
> However, I would expect that most users would not have the patience to
> do this via apt preferences, and if there is an easier way, I was not
> aware of it.
sources.list, apt-get update and check the output of
apt-show-versions | egrep -v '/(testing|unstable).*uptodate'
Not ideal, but it works.
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