> > dpkg --forget-old-unavail forget uninstalled unavailable pkgs > > > >Did you have any uninstalled, unavailable packages? If not, then > ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ > Yes. ? > > >that's why it didn't do anything. If you did, then it's a bug. > > How can I set a package to be unavailable?
You don't - it usually happens when the package was previously
available on an FTP site (or on a CD-ROM, or wherever you get your
"Packages" files from) and no longer is.
I assume that this command might be useful in the following case:
You had selected a package (ie. xtetris) using dselect and the ftp method
when it was "available" from ftp.debian.org, but never installed it. The
flags in the dpkg database (/var/lib/dpkg/status) would be set to install
it. Perhaps you waited a few days, and the package was deleted from
ftp.debian.org (ie. xtetris violated a trademark). When dselect is run
again, it would clear the available list (/var/lib/dpkg/available), and
re-load it using the Packages file from ftp.debian.org. Now you've got
a case where you have something _selected_ to be installed, but it is
still _uninstalled_, and it is also _unavailable_. That's where that
command might be useful (especially to tools like dselect which internally
call dpkg).
[ Disclaimer: I'm just guessing about how dpkg might work. It might not
actually work this way. ]
Cheers,
- Jim
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