Hi,

currently, apt-listbugs output might look like this:

Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
grave bugs of context (→ 2025.09.21.20251026+dfsg-1) <Outstanding>
 b1 - #1121307 - lpdf-lmt.lmt:1681: attempt to perform bitwise operation on a nil value (local 'options') serious bugs of ca-certificates-java (→ 20260311) <Outstanding>
 b2 - #1142266 - ca-certificates-java: doesn't refresh /etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts on upgrade from bookworm serious bugs of inkscape (→ 1.4.3-1+b1) <Outstanding>
 b3 - #1141190 - Non-free license on Hershey fonts serious bugs of texlive-formats-extra (→ 2026.20260711-1) <Outstanding>
 b4 - #1139505 - gitmagic: FTBFS: LaTeX error
   Merged with: 1139514 1139525
Summary:
 ca-certificates-java(1 bug), context(1 bug), inkscape(1 bug), texlive-formats-extra(1 bug)
Are you sure you want to install/upgrade the above packages? [Y/n/?/...]


I'm providing user support for the MNT Reform platform. Since we usually
require packages more recent than what is in Debian stable for the ARM64
systems to work correctly, our users are provided with a Debian unstable
installation. In the hopes that it might reduce the amount of bugs our users
run into when using Debian unstable, we have apt-listbugs installed by default.

The problem which I frequently encounter is, that our users see the list above
and then have no way of knowing what to do with this information because they
don't know how to connect the bug number with the corresponding webpage of the
Debian BTS.

I have two ideas:

Instead of listing the bug number, expand it to a URL the user can click on.
The bug subjects are usually super long anyways (see above) so maybe it would
not be too bad to instead output:

 b1 - https://bugs.debian.org/1121307 - lpdf-lmt.lmt:1681: attempt to perform bitwise operation on a nil value (local 'options') serious bugs of ca-certificates-java (→ 20260311) <Outstanding>
 b2 - https://bugs.debian.org/1142266 - ca-certificates-java: doesn't refresh /etc/ssl/certs/java/cacerts on upgrade from bookworm serious bugs of inkscape (→ 1.4.3-1+b1) <Outstanding>
 b3 - https://bugs.debian.org/1141190 - Non-free license on Hershey fonts serious bugs of texlive-formats-extra (→ 2026.20260711-1) <Outstanding>
 b4 - https://bugs.debian.org/1139505 - gitmagic: FTBFS: LaTeX error

Or, alternatively, add an additional line of text just after the summary saying
something along the lines of:

To obtain more details about the bugs listed above, go to
https://bugs.debian.org/XXXXXXX where you replace XXXXXXX with the numerical
value shown at the beginning of each line above (but without the hash).

What do you think?

Thanks!

cheers, josch

Control: tags -1 + moreinfo

Hello Johannes, nice to read you!    :-)
Thanks for your bug report.

Yes, something like that.
non-tech-savvy users to Debian unstable, unless you are willing to
educate them all!".

And don't get me wrong, educating users is a noble goal in itself, so it
might be worth the hassle... But it sure requires time and effort.

Have you considered Debian testing as a compromise between the latest
software versions of Debian unstable and the, well, stability of Debian
stable?
Having apt-listbugs installed by default could still be a good idea,
but Debian testing is a bit less adventurous than Debian unstable, at
least in my experience...

Anyway.
to suggest the use of the apt-listbugs interactive prompt?

At the above prompt, you may reply with a question mark to see
the available possibilities:

    Are you sure you want to install/upgrade the above packages? [Y/n/?/...] ?
         y     - continue the APT installation.
         n     - stop the APT installation.
       <num>   - query the specified bug number
                 (uses querybts as user REGULAR_USER).
      #<num>   - same as <num>.
       b<id>   - same as <num>, but query the bug identified by <id>.
         r     - redisplay bug lists.
         c     - compose bug lists in HTML.
         w     - display bug lists in HTML
                 (uses sensible-browser as user REGULAR_USER).
     d <num>.. - dodge bugs <num> by pinning affected packages
                 (restart APT session to enable).
     d b<id>.. - dodge bugs identified by <id> by pinning affected packages
                 (restart APT session to enable).
     p <pkg>.. - pin packages <pkg>
                 (restart APT session to enable).
     p         - pin all the above packages
                 (restart APT session to enable).
     i <num>   - mark bug number <num> as ignored.
     i b<id>   - mark the bug identified by <id> as ignored.
     i         - mark all the above bugs as ignored.
         u     - undo all the dodge/pin/ignore operations done so far.
         ?     - print this help.

For instance, you can reply with `1121307` or `#1121307` or `b1` and
this will use `querybts` (from package `reportbug`, if installed) to
display the bug report in a TUI.
Or you can reply with `w` and this will create a temporary HTML page
and display it with `sensible-browser`. The page has the bug lists with
links to http://bugs.debian.org/1121307 and the other bug reports.

The implementation of apt-listbugs even does its best to run `querybts`
and `sensible-browser` as the regular user who became root (with su or
sudo), rather than as root.

Another possibility is to reply with `c` and this will create the
temporary HTML page and show its local URI so that it can be
copy-pasted to a browser location bar.


As I said, all these strategies could be not enough for your needs,
but I thought it was worth mentioning them, just in case...

Your first idea implies a bit of repetition, but it could be not that
bad.
Your second idea also has its merits, even though the phrasing should
be made clearer (it's a little cryptic, as it is: I understand the
meaning, because I already know, but what about a non-tech-savvy
user?).

I have to think about these ideas. Maybe there's a third possibility
which is better...

You're welcome.
Please let me know whether you have considered using the apt-listbugs
interactive prompt.

Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Bye.

Hi Francesco,

Quoting Francesco Poli (2026-07-20 23:23:26)

thank you for replying this quickly!

True. I have over 1.7k posts at https://community.mnt.re not all of which are
user support but many of my posts is exactly that: educating users. But it's
rewarding in the sense that in the end, everybody leaves smarter than they were
before. :)

Yes, that is correct. The company MNT prefers unstable because it often
happened that important packages like mesa were stuck in unstable and prevented
from transitioning to testing because of some unrelated other issue. I talked
to them about using testing but when we tried it out, we ran into exactly this
issue.

I keep telling myself that somebody has to run unstable or otherwise nobody
will find the RC bugs. XD

But, this topic is unrelated to this bugreport. Even if we were to switch to
testing, I would keep apt-listbugs in the default installation because testing
also has RC bugs.

I know of it but below you say "I understand the meaning, because I already
know" and the same applies here. When new users see this prompt:

    Are you sure you want to install/upgrade the above packages? [Y/n/?/...]

Then they do not think "wonderful, I can type a question mark which will
probably give me some help output -- lets do that!"

I cannot remember a single instance where somebody asked anything about the
interactive prompt. Instead I get questions like: "when it says Yn what does
this mean?" and you and I know that it means that "if you hit enter it will
select the option written in upper-case". This is part of the TUI interface
that we are used to but it's not so obvious for newcomers.

But you are right, I should be promoting the interactive interface more, so
here we go:
https://community.mnt.re/t/psa-apt-listbugs-can-open-bug-reports-in-your-browser/4509

Thank you! I have not tried out "c" before. :)

I will leave the decision of what to do about this bug up to you. Feel free to
close this bug as wontfix if you think that it's too verbose or too much
clutter and don't find a solution that you are comfortable with. I just wanted
to bring this up and now you can decide what to do with this information. :D

Thank you for maintaining apt-listbugs!

cheers, josch