`apt list` output question

[Victor Sudakov]

Dear Colleagues,

The output of `apt list` and some other utilities prints
package names with modifiers after the "/" symbol, e.g.

# apt list --installed | grep udev
libudev1/stable,now 241-7~deb10u7 amd64 [installed]
udev/stable,now 241-7~deb10u7 amd64 [installed]

I think that these modifiers can even change over time, at least after
an `apt upgrade`.

What is the meaning of the "stable,now" string? Sometimes there is the
"unknown" string too. At first I thought it was a reference to the repo
the package had been installed from, but no: I don't have anything like
"stable" or "now" in /etc/apt/sources.list*

This should be clearly documented somewhere but I cannot find it. Also,
can these modifiers be used for anything useful?

--
Victor Sudakov VAS4-RIPE
http://vas.tomsk.ru/
2:5005/49@fidonet

[IL Ka]

What is the meaning of the "stable,now" string?

Here are two answers from the Debian developer 

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/408944/understanding-apt-list-output

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/403177/what-is-the-format-of-the-apt-search-output-on-debian-ubuntu

Btw, "apt" output is not stable nor well documented. It is recommended to use "apt-get" for the scripting purposes or, in your case, "dpkg --list" or "dpkg-query".

[Victor Sudakov]

IL Ka wrote:
> >
> >
> > What is the meaning of the "stable,now" string?
>
> Here are two answers from the Debian developer
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/408944/understanding-apt-list-output
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/403177/what-is-the-format-of-the-apt-search-output-on-debian-ubuntu

Thank you for the links. It is strange however that this has to be
documented somewhere in stackexchange, not in any official
documentation.

>
>
> Btw, "apt" output is not stable nor well documented. It is recommended to
> use "apt-get" for the scripting purposes or, in your case, "dpkg --list" or
> "dpkg-query".

Oh no, my case is the purely interactive use of "apt". I have noticed
that this suffix can be used interactively:

# apt install yamllint/foobar
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Release 'foobar' for 'yamllint' was not found

# apt install yamllint/buster
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Selected version '1.15.0-1' (Debian:10.9/stable [all]) for 'yamllint'
...

I just don't quite understand how this can be put to good use.

But at least I know now what the "unknown" suffix means:
When you see unknown, that means the repository doesn’t have a "Suite"
entry in its Release file.

It's also confusing that the suffix shows "stable" while in fact I'm
tracking "buster" and have no intention to track "stable".
Indeed "apt-cache policy yamllint" shows
"500 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages", that is
"buster", not "stable" as in "apt list" output.

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Ma, 30 mar 21, 09:47:48, Victor Sudakov wrote:
>
> # apt install yamllint/buster
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Selected version '1.15.0-1' (Debian:10.9/stable [all]) for 'yamllint'
> ...
>
> I just don't quite understand how this can be put to good use.

It's useful when you mix releases (dangerous).

> But at least I know now what the "unknown" suffix means:
> When you see unknown, that means the repository doesn’t have a "Suite"
> entry in its Release file.
>
> It's also confusing that the suffix shows "stable" while in fact I'm
> tracking "buster" and have no intention to track "stable".
> Indeed "apt-cache policy yamllint" shows
> "500 http://deb.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages", that is
> "buster", not "stable" as in "apt list" output.

But buster is (still) stable ;)


Kind regards,
Andrei
--
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser