On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 11:09:27 -0500 Adam Conrad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I think you're confusing the first and last columns... You were right. Thanks; that correction helps. What it says here[1] confirms it: The exact format for the "Status:" field is: Status: Want Flag Status Where Want may be one of unknown, install, hold, deinstall, purge. Flag may be one of ok, reinstreq, hold, hold-reinstreq. Status may be one of not-installed, unpacked, half-configured, installed, half-installed config-files, post-inst-failed, removal-failed. {...} ...so the 'Status(Want)' field is not the 'Status(Status)' field. I've misused the term 'deinstalled', or rather 'Status (deinstalled)'; sorry about that. Despite this goof, and at the possible risk of offending with further errata, I'm afraid your correction has thrown out the baby with the bathwater -- the "baby" being the prior part of my last message about the 'Status (Status)' field terms being merely contrary, despite being written as if they were actually contradictory. To recap, (using some bits just learned about 'Status(Status)' fields), 'Status(installed)' is defined as ALL files present, and 'Status(not-installed)' is defined as NO files present. Those definitions are contrary to each other, but common usage of 'not-' properly indicates a contradiction[2]. Your first post said: "sure it's installed", which does not agree with respect to those 'Status(Status)' definitions. The error very probably stems from confused nomenclature in the "Status: Want Flag Status" data structure. It matters because these nomenclature bugs will continue to confuse users. These probably can't be fixed outright, (it's a bit late to easily change any 'Status(Status)' field names to something better), but the bugs could (eventually) be identified, acknowledged and documented with caveats or warnings where appropriate. NB: this supposed Nomenclature That Breeds Confusion[3] is not an 'apache' bug, but bugs start where they're found. Which is not to suggest that right here is the proper forum to continue to address possible new bugs beyond the point of introduction. [1] dpkg technical manual Chapter 1 - Quick summary of dpkg's external interface 1.2 The dpkg status area /usr/share/doc/libapt-pkg-doc/dpkg-tech.html/ch1.html ...in package 'libapt-pkg-doc'. [2] This book has a decent recent treatment of contraries vs. contradictions: Logic made easy / Deborah J. Bennett. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 2004. [3] A favorite example: the electrical terms 'positive' and 'negative', after the advent of atomic theory, which they predate -- it turned out the terms have it backwards, in a way. There's a chapter on that in: Scientists' Nightmares : The Baffling, the Fake, & the Unsolvable George O. Smith / Putnam Publishing Group, 1972 And a feisty revisionist essay on the same topic: WHICH WAY DOES THE "ELECTRICITY" REALLY FLOW? (C)1996 William Beaty http://www.amasci.com/amateur/elecdir.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]