I decided I don't need aptitude anymore. Thought this info might be useful for others here. Of course, aptitude should still be fixed.
I only used aptitude because I knew if I installed a package, and it automatically installed dependencies, then I uninstalled that package, it would also uninstall its dependencies. When I started using aptitude, apt-get couldn't do that. I basically never use the ncurses interface of aptitude anymore. It turns out that "apt-get remove" provides that same functionality of removing automatically installed dependencies. Both dependencies that were installed via aptitude, and apt-get. Handling of dependencies installed by aptitude was addded "~4 years ago... when apt started having a notion of autoinstalled packages". - #ubuntu-devel The devel channel also said that autoremove also works for dependencies installed by all the gui package management software: software-center, update-manager, and synaptic, because they use libapt. So I can stop avoiding using those, which is nice. You need to use "autoremove" instead of "remove" because apparently somebody thought that was bad default behavior. I'd like something shorter to type than "autoremove". And, as I guess has been mentioned earlier in this bug, the aptitude resolver is kind of icky. Here's the evidence autoremove works: # lsb_release -c Codename: oneiric # aptitude install clisp The following NEW packages will be installed: clisp libffcall1{a} 0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. # apt-get autoremove clisp Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: clisp libffcall1 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded. # apt-get install clisp Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: libffcall1 Suggested packages: clisp-doc clisp-dev slime The following NEW packages will be installed: clisp libffcall1 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. # apt-get autoremove clisp Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: clisp libffcall1 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/831768 Title: aptitude cannot handle conflicts with multiarch enabled To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/aptitude/+bug/831768/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs