Hi,

I am using the distribution aptosid and I have a question about the debian package management system. I think I have seen it before but is there a way to tell if a package is being replaced by another package with a different name? Sometimes when I do an apt-get dist-upgrade a package is sometimes replaced by another package with another name as the new package supplies what the old package did.

I thought the command was "apt-cache policy <packagename> " but I do not see it what I am looking for. I just want to make sure that I do not remove a package that should not be removed.

If anyone has any questions let me know.

Thanks

apt-cache policy shows installed and available, sometimes they are the same version if there is an updated package the versions will be different.

$ apt-cache policy iceweasel
iceweasel:
Installed: 10.0.4esr-2
Candidate: 10.0.4esr-2
Version table:
12.0-2 0
1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main i386 Packages
*** 10.0.4esr-2 0
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Read the apt-get man pages will explain in more detail. The nice thing about debian is the smart package management system. Install apt--listbugs and apt-listchanges, and enjoy the ride. Or the aptosid manual.

ok thanks. I will read up a little more and give those other packages a try.