Package: apt Version: 0.9.3 Severity: wishlist apt-get should remove foreign arch packages even if arch suffix is missing.
I know that you disagree, but documenting unintuitive behaviour in the BTS in a good thing and this bug report explains why your reasoning is wrong. # dpkg --print-architecture amd64 # dpkg -l sc | grep ' sc' | tr -s ' ' ii sc 7.16-3 Text-based spreadsheet with VI-like keybindings # apt-get remove sc ... Package 'sc' is not installed, so not removed. Did you mean 'sc:i386'? 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. # dpkg -s sc | grep Arch Architecture: i386 Actually there are two bugs shown above. One is that dpkg -l omits important information. The other is that apt-get only removes foreign packages if either the arch suffix is added or if the package is not available on the native architecture. The reasoning by apt's maintainers is that in the above case sc:i386 must explicitly have been installed, which is obviously wrong since that a packages is available on one architecture now does not mean that it has been available on this architecture in the past and apt installs foreign packages if the architecture suffix is not added and the package does not exist on the native architecture. Carsten -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org