[Bug 1988819] Re: When apt keeps back packages due to phased updates, it should say so

[Robie Basak]

> We can't really store reasons for why something is kept back.

How about:

When something is scored down because it is not phased, make a note.
When the scoring is all done, take the list of held back packages, and
identify all those that have a note against them. Then print (up to) two
lists:

The following packages are being phased and have been kept back:
   ...

The following [additional] packages have been kept back:
   ...

(use two translatable strings for the second message, adding
"additional" if the first list was non-zero).

Of course the exact strings can be adjusted, but I hope you see my point
in fixing the "we don't know what final reason is because the different
scoring adjustments get conflated" problem.

> And if we managed to do that, we'd end up with an untranslated line in
the middle of the output for every non-English locale until it's
translated and apt updated (it does not use language packs).

We should certainly be able to fix this in the development release and
get translations in the usual way. For SRU, we could wait for
translations, or not, but no need to block on a fix in the development
release for this.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1988819

Title:
  When apt keeps back packages due to phased updates, it should say so

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  After phased updates have been introduced, it may happen that apt
  upgrade shows packages as upgradable but ends up not upgrading them.
  In this case the packages are indicated as being "kept back".

  Unfortunately, the feedback provided about this to the user is not
  very informative. The user sees the packages being kept back and
  thinks something is going wrong on the system.

  When packages are kept back because of phased updates, apt should say
  so e.g., it should say that the upgrade is delayed.

  Incidentally note that aptitude does not respect phased updates.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
  Package: apt 2.4.7
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-47.51-generic 5.15.46
  Uname: Linux 5.15.0-47-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu82.1
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CurrentDesktop: KDE
  Date: Tue Sep  6 10:05:14 2022
  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-16 (933 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
  SourcePackage: apt
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to jammy on 2022-06-03 (94 days ago)

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