#914868 Recommends obsolete libavcodec versions preventing their autoremoval

Package:
firefox-esr
Source:
firefox-esr
Description:
Mozilla Firefox web browser - Extended Support Release (ESR)
Submitter:
Michael Biebl
Date:
2018-11-28 07:51:17 UTC
Severity:
normal
#914868#5
Date:
2018-11-28 05:39:05 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

today I noticed that I still had libavcodec57 installed, which also kept
the obsolete libx264-152 installed, which no longer exists in the
archive.

The reason why those libaries were not autoremoved by "apt autoremove"
is that firefox has an explicit Recommends on libavcodec57, even if it's
only an alternative Recommends.

Please consider dropping old versions of libavcodec from the alternative
Recommends list so obsolete libraries can be properly autoremoved.

Regards,
Michael
#914868#10
Date:
2018-11-28 05:45:11 UTC
From:
To:
Am 28.11.18 um 06:39 schrieb Michael Biebl:

# apt purge libavcodec57 --autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libavcodec57* libavutil55* libswresample2* libx264-152* libx265-160*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 32.7 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]


firefox-esr has the same problem, so cloning the bug report accordingly.


Regards,
Michael
#914868#23
Date:
2018-11-28 06:06:00 UTC
From:
To:
I'd argue apt purge should be able to remove libavcodec57 on its own,
assuming you have libavcodec58 installed (since the recommends is for
one of them). Also note that libavcodec57 is still in unstable...

Mike
#914868#28
Date:
2018-11-28 07:16:06 UTC
From:
To:
Am 28.11.18 um 07:06 schrieb Mike Hommey:

I can't see how that could work as long as there is still a package
referencing libavcodec57.
That said, I know too little about the apt internals to argue why apt
behaves the way it does.
If you are convinced this is a bug in apt, would you mind filing a bug
report against apt and blocking this bug reportbug with it?

libavcodec57 is no longer installable in unstable due to libx264-152
being missing.
Afaics, the old ffmpeg-3 binaries simply haven't been decrufted yet.


Is there a good reason to keep the old Recommends around as alternatives?
#914868#33
Date:
2018-11-28 07:38:53 UTC
From:
To:
For one, there _are_ people doing nasty mixes between stable and
unstable to get firefox (yeah, I know... but it's not like there's much
choice for them if they don't want to use firefox-esr or upstream
binaries). And for them libavcodec57 actually is the better option.

Mike