Package: tasksel Version: 3.39 Severity: normal I was trying to help someone in #debian who wanted to install the Standard set of packages after his netinst had failed to do so due to a lack of network connection at the time. I thought that perhaps he could use tasksel to achieve this, so I tried it on my own computer first.
I ran "sudo tasksel", and was given the dialog, without any "Standard" task to choose. So be it. I reported that to the user. But then there was no obvious way for me to escape from tasksel. There is no Cancel button -- just an OK button. Ctrl-C did not work. So I did what seemed obvious at the time -- I unselected all the tasks (only one had been selected; I think it was ssh server), and then selected OK. Instead of just letting me out, it started deleting packages. It happened extremely quickly (on this computer), with no prompt, no warning of any kind. Ctrl-C still did not work. When tasksel finally exited on its own, there was a long string of ^C^C^C^C^C^C^C... on the terminal. The only way to figure out what happened, then, is to check the logs. $ grep remove /var/log/dpkg.log 2017-07-07 11:52:38 startup packages remove 2017-07-07 11:52:48 startup packages remove 2017-07-07 11:52:48 remove exim4:all 4.89-2+deb9u1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:49 startup packages remove 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove python-docutils:all 0.13.1+dfsg-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove docutils-common:all 0.13.1+dfsg-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove docutils-doc:all 0.13.1+dfsg-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libsoftware-license-perl:all 0.103012-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libdata-section-perl:all 0.200006-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libmro-compat-perl:all 0.12-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libclass-c3-perl:all 0.32-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libalgorithm-c3-perl:all 0.10-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libarchive-extract-perl:all 0.80-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libasprintf0c2:amd64 0.19.3-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libpod-readme-perl:all 1.1.2-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:50 remove libnamespace-autoclean-perl:all 0.28-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libnamespace-clean-perl:all 0.27-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libb-hooks-endofscope-perl:all 0.21-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libclass-c3-xs-perl:amd64 0.14-1+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libmoox-handlesvia-perl:all 0.001008-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libmoo-perl:all 2.002005-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libdata-perl-perl:all 0.002009-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove librole-tiny-perl:all 2.000005-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libclass-method-modifiers-perl:all 2.12-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libclass-xsaccessor-perl:amd64 1.19-2+b7 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libcpan-changes-perl:all 0.400002-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libmodule-build-perl:all 0.422000-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libcpan-meta-perl:all 2.150010-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libgetopt-long-descriptive-perl:all 0.100-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libsub-exporter-perl:all 0.986-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libdata-optlist-perl:all 0.110-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:51 remove libdevel-lexalias-perl:amd64 0.05-1+b4 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libdevel-caller-perl:amd64 2.06-1+b4 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libdevel-globaldestruction-perl:all 0.14-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libtype-tiny-perl:all 1.000005-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove liblist-moreutils-perl:amd64 0.416-1+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libexporter-tiny-perl:all 0.042-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libfile-slurp-perl:all 9999.19-6 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libimport-into-perl:all 1.002005-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libintl-xs-perl:amd64 1.26-2+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libintl-perl:all 1.26-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libio-stringy-perl:all 2.111-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libisccc90:amd64 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libisc95:amd64 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libjasper1:amd64 1.900.1-debian1-2.4+deb8u3 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove libterm-ui-perl:all 0.46-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove liblog-message-simple-perl:all 0.10-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:52 remove liblog-message-perl:all 0.8-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove liblwres90:amd64 1:9.9.5.dfsg-9+deb8u10 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libparams-validate-perl:amd64 1.26-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpackage-stash-perl:all 0.37-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libmodule-implementation-perl:all 0.09-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libmodule-load-conditional-perl:all 0.68-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libmodule-pluggable-perl:all 5.2-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libmodule-runtime-perl:all 0.014-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libmodule-signature-perl:all 0.81-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpackage-constants-perl:all 0.06-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpackage-stash-xs-perl:amd64 0.28-3+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpadwalker-perl:amd64 2.2-2+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpango1.0-0:amd64 1.40.5-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpangox-1.0-0:amd64 0.0.2-5+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libpangoxft-1.0-0:amd64 1.40.5-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libparams-classify-perl:amd64 0.013-6+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:53 remove libparams-util-perl:amd64 1.07-3+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libpath-tiny-perl:all 0.100-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libpod-latex-perl:all 0.61-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libpod-markdown-perl:all 3.005000-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libpth20:amd64 2.0.7-20+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libregexp-common-perl:all 2016060801-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libstrictures-perl:all 2.000003-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libsub-exporter-progressive-perl:all 0.001013-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libsub-identify-perl:amd64 0.12-2+b1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libsub-install-perl:all 0.928-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libtext-soundex-perl:amd64 3.4-1+b4 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libtext-template-perl:all 1.46-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libtry-tiny-perl:all 0.28-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libtype-tiny-xs-perl:amd64 0.012-1+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libunicode-utf8-perl:amd64 0.60-1+b3 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libuuid-perl:amd64 0.27-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libvariable-magic-perl:amd64 0.61-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:54 remove libwebpmux1:amd64 0.4.1-1.2+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove libwebpdemux1:amd64 0.4.1-1.2+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove libwebp5:amd64 0.4.1-1.2+b2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-pil:amd64 4.0.0-4 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove libwebpdemux2:amd64 0.5.2-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove libxapian22:amd64 1.2.19-1+deb8u1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-soappy:all 0.12.22-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-defusedxml:all 0.4.1-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-pygments:all 2.2.0+dfsg-1 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-roman:all 2.0.0-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:55 remove python-wstools:all 0.4.3-3 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:56 remove sysstat:amd64 11.4.3-2 <none> 2017-07-19 10:05:56 remove task-ssh-server:all 3.39 <none> Tasksel should NOT remove packages without warning. Tasksel SHOULD have some way to exit without doing anything. -- System Information: Debian Release: 9.0 APT prefers stable APT policy: (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages tasksel depends on: ii apt 1.4.6 ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.61 ii liblocale-gettext-perl 1.07-3+b1 ii perl-base 5.24.1-3 ii tasksel-data 3.39 tasksel recommends no packages. tasksel suggests no packages. -- debconf information: tasksel/title: tasksel/tasks: tasksel/desktop: tasksel/first: ssh-server, standard
