[Bug 1166230] Re: Updater lists many transitional dummy packages

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

Whether or not "transitional dummy package" is informative, that is what
the Debian wiki currently recommends you use for the synopsis.
<http://wiki.debian.org/Renaming_a_Package> And for all I know, maybe
there are scripts or other tools for renaming a package, which embed
that string in their code. If they exist, is it practical to change them
to be more context-sensitive?

If not, then we have to reduce the visible redundancy ourselves. Two questions:
1. Why do transitional dummy packages need updates at all? What needs updating about an empty package?
2. The description of most of those packages says that it "can safely be removed". Why aren't we removing it instead of updating it?

** Changed in: update-manager (Ubuntu)
       Status: Triaged => Confirmed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1166230

Title:
  Updater lists many transitional dummy packages

Status in “update-manager” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  The update-manager GUI lists a number of "Transitional dummy packages"
  available for update. There doesn't seem to be any additional
  information available about these packages through the UI. As a user I
  have no idea what I am supposed to do with them.

  I suggest grouping the "transitional dummy package" under the "Ubuntu
  base" section in update-manager, so that they are not displayed to the
  end user by default.

  To reproduce:
  1) Run Software Updater from the dash
  2) Look at the list of updates in the "Details of updates" list

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
  Package: update-manager 1:0.185
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-16.26-generic 3.8.5
  Uname: Linux 3.8.0-16-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu5
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Mon Apr  8 10:17:22 2013
  GsettingsChanges:
   
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-09-17 (934 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Beta amd64 (20100901.1)
  MarkForUpload: True
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: update-manager
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-01-25 (72 days ago)

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