[kwlug-disc] apt-get dist-upgrade: "... newer than version in archive"??

[Paul Nijjar]

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 10:50:33AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>   more debian pkg mgmt questions.  in prep for trying a "dist-upgrade" 
> from sarge (3.1) to etch (4.0), i edited /etc/apt/sources.list 
> appropriately, then i installed "apt-show-versions" so i could run
>
> # apt-show-versions -u
>
> to see what would be upgraded.  i got 106 packages, but a small number  
> of them were flagged as "newer than version in archive".  what does that 
> mean?  that a package had a particular version number in sarge, but was 
> subsequently downgraded for etch?  and if i do the dist-upgrade, what 
> happens to such packages?  thanks.

I don't have a complete understanding of this. I highly doubt that the
package has been downgraded for etch -- this almost never happens. 

Do you have some examples? One thing I would check is whether
apt-show-versions is lying -- check the version that is installed vs.
the versions that are available. (This should be doable in aptitude, I
think -- if you use the text interface, find the package and select it
then it should show you all the versions of a package that are
available.) 

Another thing that maybe can affect this is backports. There are also
some bug reports where apt-list-changes seems to get confused, but
they probably don't apply in your case: 

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=397225

If you are worried about what will happen to your packages, then the
--simulate flag is your friend. 

- Paul