I hate apt-get

[Ken D'Ambrosio]

On Sun, February 13, 2011 11:06 am, Jeffry Smith wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 8:52 AM, Lori Nagel <jastiv at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I hate apt-get stuff.
>[T]he only way I've found to hose up apt-get or aptitude (which
> does a better job of resolving conflicts) is to use dpkg
> --force-(insert option here).

I will -- very slightly -- disagree, here.  I've managed to hork the works
on occasional upgrades... especially if the word "beta" is involved.  Now,
granted, that's kinda my own fault, so I can't point the Finger of Blame
at anyone but myself, but it does offer an alternate reason for breakage,
sans "--force".

That being said, it's a damn rare messup where some careful editing of the
requisite "database" files doesn't fix things up.  (Usually deleting
installed-but-broken applications, followed by "apt-get -f install", and,
lastly, re-installing said packages.)

My favorite way to get messed up in RPM land used to be during
larger-than-they-planned-for updates -- generally, changing the major rev.
of RPM would leave you in the can't-install-RPM-which-you-need-to-proceed
chicken/egg catch-22.

I guess the bottom line is, ain't no package management system that's
perfect (though I know one user on a BBS I belong to who feels pretty
strongly about Sun's package management).  And, when you break from the
expected upgrade paths and/or use --force for either of them, you run a
real risk of Issues(tm).

-K