#1135084 aptitude: confused by a dependency on a package that becomes virtual

Package:
aptitude
Source:
aptitude
Description:
terminal-based package manager
Submitter:
Vincent Lefevre
Date:
2026-05-29 10:59:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1135084#5
Date:
2026-04-27 11:36:17 UTC
From:
To:
I currently have texlive-full 2025.20260124-1 installed. This package
has a dependency on dvidvi, which is installed as a real package. But
in the next version of the packages, dvidvi becomes a virtual package,
provided by texlive-binaries:

Package: texlive-binaries
Version: 2026.20260303.78225+ds-3
Replaces: dvidvi, [...]
Provides: dvidvi, [...]
Conflicts: dvidvi, [...]

while texlive-full 2026.20260328-4 still lists dvidvi as a dependency
(which will be satisfied, though).

I can upgrade texlive-binaries without any issue:

disset:~> aptitude install -s texlive-binaries
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  dvidvi{a}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libkpathsea6 libptexenc1 libsynctex2 libtexlua53-5 texlive-binaries
5 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 79 not upgraded.
[...]

(ditto via the TUI).

But if I want to upgrade texlive-full (from 2025.20260124-1 to
2026.20260328-4), either from the command line or via the TUI,
aptitude complains. By default, it proposes:

disset:~> aptitude install -s texlive-full
[...]
     Keep the following packages at their current version:
1)     texlive-fonts-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
2)     texlive-fonts-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
3)     texlive-full [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
4)     texlive-lang-chinese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
5)     texlive-latex-extra-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]

the next one being

     Remove the following packages:
1)     texlive-full [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]

     Keep the following packages at their current version:
2)     texlive-fonts-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
3)     texlive-fonts-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
4)     texlive-lang-chinese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
5)     texlive-latex-extra-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]

and other ones proposing to remove up to 8 packages, like

      Remove the following packages:
1)      latex2html [2026+debian1-1 (now, testing, unstable)]
2)      texlive-fonts-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
3)      texlive-fonts-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
4)      texlive-formats-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
5)      texlive-full [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
6)      texlive-lang-chinese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
7)      texlive-latex-extra-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]
8)      texlive-science [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing)]

      Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
9)      texlive-latex-extra recommends texlive-fonts-recommended
10)     texlive-lang-cjk recommends texlive-lang-chinese
11)     texlive-fonts-extra recommends texlive-fonts-recommended

or downgrading many packages:

      Downgrade the following packages:
1)      context [2025.09.21.20251026+dfsg-1 (now, testing, unstable) -> 2024.04.
2)      luametatex [2.11.08+ds-1 (now, testing, unstable) -> 2.11.02+really2.11.
3)      texlive-base [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (stable)
4)      texlive-bibtex-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2
5)      texlive-extra-utils [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (
6)      texlive-font-utils [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (s
7)      texlive-fonts-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (
8)      texlive-fonts-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.202503
9)      texlive-formats-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2
10)     texlive-full [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (stable)
11)     texlive-games [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (stable
12)     texlive-humanities [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (s
13)     texlive-lang-arabic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (
14)     texlive-lang-chinese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
15)     texlive-lang-cjk [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (sta
16)     texlive-lang-cyrillic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
17)     texlive-lang-czechslovak [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.2025030
18)     texlive-lang-english [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
19)     texlive-lang-european [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
20)     texlive-lang-french [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (
21)     texlive-lang-german [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (
22)     texlive-lang-greek [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (s
23)     texlive-lang-italian [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
24)     texlive-lang-japanese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
25)     texlive-lang-korean [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (
26)     texlive-lang-other [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (s
27)     texlive-lang-polish [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (
28)     texlive-lang-portuguese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309
29)     texlive-lang-spanish [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1
30)     texlive-latex-base [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (s
31)     texlive-latex-base-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-
32)     texlive-latex-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (
33)     texlive-latex-extra-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309
34)     texlive-latex-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.202503
35)     texlive-luatex [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (stabl
36)     texlive-metapost [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (sta
37)     texlive-music [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (stable
38)     texlive-pictures [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (sta
39)     texlive-plain-generic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2
40)     texlive-pstricks [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (sta
41)     texlive-publishers [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (s
42)     texlive-science [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-2 (stab
43)     texlive-xetex [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2024.20250309-1 (stable

The expected resolution is currently the 28th!

      Remove the following packages:
1)      dvidvi [1.0-10.2 (now, stable, testing, unstable)]

      Upgrade the following packages:
2)      libkpathsea6 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now, testing) -> 2026.2026030
3)      libptexenc1 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260303
4)      libsynctex2 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260303
5)      libtexlua53-5 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now, testing) -> 2026.202603
6)      texlive-base [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (unstabl
7)      texlive-bibtex-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5
8)      texlive-binaries [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now, testing) -> 2026.202
9)      texlive-extra-utils [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (
10)     texlive-font-utils [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (u
11)     texlive-formats-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5
12)     texlive-games [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (unstab
13)     texlive-humanities [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (u
14)     texlive-lang-arabic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (
15)     texlive-lang-cjk [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (uns
16)     texlive-lang-cyrillic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
17)     texlive-lang-czechslovak [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.2026032
18)     texlive-lang-english [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
19)     texlive-lang-european [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
20)     texlive-lang-french [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (
21)     texlive-lang-german [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (
22)     texlive-lang-greek [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (u
23)     texlive-lang-italian [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
24)     texlive-lang-japanese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
25)     texlive-lang-korean [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (
26)     texlive-lang-other [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (u
27)     texlive-lang-polish [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3 (
28)     texlive-lang-portuguese [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328
29)     texlive-lang-spanish [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-3
30)     texlive-latex-base [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (u
31)     texlive-latex-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (
32)     texlive-latex-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.202603
33)     texlive-luatex [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (unsta
34)     texlive-metapost [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (uns
35)     texlive-music [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (unstab
36)     texlive-pictures [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (uns
37)     texlive-plain-generic [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5
38)     texlive-pstricks [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (uns
39)     texlive-publishers [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (u
40)     texlive-science [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-5 (unst
41)     texlive-xetex [2025.20260124-1 (now, testing) -> 2026.20260328-4 (unstab

#1135084#10
Date:
2026-05-29 10:56:39 UTC
From:
To:
With the current status where the following are available:

  texlive-base 2026.20260527-1
  texlive-bin 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4
  texlive-extra 2026.20260527-1

the following is still fine:

qaa:~> aptitude install -s texlive-binaries
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  dvidvi{a}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libkpathsea6 libptexenc1 libsynctex-dev libsynctex2 libtexlua53-5 texlive-binaries
6 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 771 not upgraded.

but this is still buggy:

qaa:~> aptitude install -s texlive-full
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  dvidvi{u} fonts-hosny-amiri{u} texlive-games{u} texlive-humanities{u} texlive-lang-arabic{u}
  texlive-lang-cyrillic{u} texlive-lang-czechslovak{u} texlive-lang-english{u} texlive-lang-european{u}
  texlive-lang-french{u} texlive-lang-german{u} texlive-lang-italian{u} texlive-lang-polish{u}
  texlive-lang-portuguese{u} texlive-lang-spanish{u} texlive-music{u} texlive-publishers{u}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  texlive-fonts-extra{b} texlive-fonts-extra-doc texlive-fonts-extra-links texlive-fonts-recommended{b}
  texlive-fonts-recommended-doc texlive-full{b} texlive-humanities-doc texlive-latex-base-doc
  texlive-latex-extra-doc{b} texlive-latex-recommended-doc texlive-metapost-doc texlive-pictures-doc
  texlive-pstricks-doc texlive-publishers-doc texlive-science-doc
15 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 17 to remove and 747 not upgraded.
Need to get 3231 MB of archives. After unpacking 740 MB will be freed.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 texlive-latex-extra-doc : Breaks: texlive-xetex (< 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
 texlive-full : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-bibtex-extra (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2026.20260303) but 2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-extra-utils (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-font-utils (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-formats-extra (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-games (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-humanities (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-arabic (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-chinese (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-cjk (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-cyrillic (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-czechslovak (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-english (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-european (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-french (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-german (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-greek (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-italian (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-japanese (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-korean (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-other (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-lang-polish (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-portuguese (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-lang-spanish (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-latex-extra (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-latex-recommended (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-luatex (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-metapost (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-music (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-pictures (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-plain-generic (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-pstricks (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-publishers (>= 2026.20260328) but it is not going to be installed
                Depends: texlive-science (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
                Depends: texlive-xetex (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
 texlive-fonts-extra : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
 texlive-fonts-recommended : Depends: texlive-base (>= 2026.20260328) but 2025.20260124-1 is installed and it is kept back
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

      Keep the following packages at their current version:
1)      fonts-hosny-amiri [1.003-6 (now, testing, unstable)]
2)      texlive-fonts-extra [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
3)      texlive-fonts-recommended [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
4)      texlive-full [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
5)      texlive-games [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
6)      texlive-humanities [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
7)      texlive-lang-arabic [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
8)      texlive-lang-cyrillic [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
9)      texlive-lang-czechslovak [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
10)     texlive-lang-english [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
11)     texlive-lang-european [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
12)     texlive-lang-french [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
13)     texlive-lang-german [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
14)     texlive-lang-italian [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
15)     texlive-lang-polish [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
16)     texlive-lang-portuguese [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
17)     texlive-lang-spanish [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
18)     texlive-latex-base-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
19)     texlive-latex-extra-doc [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
20)     texlive-music [2025.20260124-1 (now)]
21)     texlive-publishers [2025.20260124-1 (now)]

      Upgrade the following packages:
22)     libkpathsea6 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]
23)     libptexenc1 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]
24)     libsynctex-dev [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]
25)     libsynctex2 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]
26)     libtexlua53-5 [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]
27)     texlive-binaries [2025.20250727.75242+ds-5+b2 (now) -> 2026.20260303.78225+ds-4 (testing, unstable)]

Since aptitude proposes to upgrade texlive-binaries, this should
have the same effect as the following:

qaa:~> aptitude install -s texlive-full texlive-binaries
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  dvidvi{a}
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libkpathsea6 libptexenc1 libsynctex-dev libsynctex2 libtexlua53-5 texlive texlive-base
  texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-binaries texlive-extra-utils texlive-font-utils texlive-fonts-extra
  texlive-fonts-extra-doc texlive-fonts-extra-links texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-fonts-recommended-doc
  texlive-formats-extra texlive-full texlive-games texlive-humanities texlive-humanities-doc
  texlive-lang-arabic texlive-lang-chinese texlive-lang-cjk texlive-lang-cyrillic texlive-lang-czechslovak
  texlive-lang-english texlive-lang-european texlive-lang-french texlive-lang-german texlive-lang-greek
  texlive-lang-italian texlive-lang-japanese texlive-lang-korean texlive-lang-other texlive-lang-polish
  texlive-lang-portuguese texlive-lang-spanish texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc
  texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-extra-doc texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-recommended-doc
  texlive-luatex texlive-metapost texlive-metapost-doc texlive-music texlive-pictures texlive-pictures-doc
  texlive-plain-generic texlive-pstricks texlive-pstricks-doc texlive-publishers texlive-publishers-doc
  texlive-science texlive-science-doc texlive-xetex
58 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 719 not upgraded.

where there are no issues.

However, by just choosing aptitude's default suggestions, it should
now be possible to upgrade in 2 steps.