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

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 14 Aug 2009, Paul Nijjar wrote:

> 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.)

  sadly, i'm not in front of the system anymore but, from memory, the
difference was very small -- the installed version of some package was
x.y.z, while the "newer" version was x.y.z-etch<n>, where <n> was some
small integer value.  or maybe it was the other way around.  it may
just be that, since this was an official "sarge" system, a small
number of packages were in this grey area between sarge and etch, and
were identified by that suffix, and apt-show-versions simply got
confused.  if memory serves, *all* of the questionable packages of
that type simply had some kind of "etch" suffix on their package name,
but the version number was identical otherwise.

  i'm not going to get overly concerned about it.  i'll just wait
until monday, do an "upgrade-dist" and see what happens.

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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