Bug#641864: how should apt-clone be used?

Package: apt-clone
Version: 0.2
Severity: normal

Hi.

I believe that I've hit a major usability problem with apt-clone, but I am
keeping here the severity as normal.

After reading the help output of apt-clone, it says:

,-[ apt-clone -h ]
| usage: apt-clone [-h] [--debug] {info,restore,clone,restore-new-distro} ...
| (...)
| clone create a clone-file from <source> (usually '/') to <destination>
`-

Unfortunately, using what would be obvious from the command line, I get:

,-[ apt-clone clone / /tmp/foo ]
| usage: apt-clone [-h] [--debug] {info,restore,clone,restore-new-distro} ...
| apt-clone: error: unrecognized arguments: /tmp/foo
`-

I that case, I have expected / to act as <source> and /tmp/foo to act as
<destination>, just like the help output.

Trying further, when I omitted /tmp/foo from my command line, I got:

,-[ apt-clone clone / ]
| not installable: libgp11-0, mnsymbol, skype, libfaac0, libzen0, libavformat52, handbrake-gtk, libnotify1, monkeys-audio, youtube-dl, lame, e4rat, aacgain, xbmc, libmac2, xbmc-data, sgml-base, libspectre1, pst-utils, libdvdcss2, libpst4, lucida, mplayer2, linux-image-2.6.38-2-amd64, libmediainfo0, libavutil50, xbmc-bin, linux-image-2.6.39-2-amd64, libmkv0, tsmuxer, libavcodec52, debian-multimedia-keyring, mencoder, minionpro, libcryptui0, libmp3lame0, pdf2djvu, xbmc-skin-confluence, libgdata7, mediainfo
| version mismatch: qmail, baobab, gedit, gnome-system-log, gnome-system-monitor, zenity, libnm-glib-vpn1, nautilus-actions, default-jre, network-manager, gnome-terminal-data, gnome-search-tool, default-jre-headless, libgnome-keyring0, gnome-dictionary, gnome-terminal, gnome-utils-common, gnome-screenshot, libpam-gnome-keyring, openjdk-6-jre-lib, gnome-utils, gnome-keyring, eog, evolution-data-server, seahorse, gedit-common, openjdk-6-jre, openjdk-6-jre-headless, gnome-nettool, libgdict-1.0-6
`-

Many of those packages I compiled myself or put them on hold (I don't want
gnome 3, for instance) and I would have expected that the part

,-
| It can also save/restore no longer downloadable packages using dpkg-repack.
`-

would hold here, as that's precisely the case of packages not being
available in the archives.

Do I have to make anything manually? I thought that apt-clone would automate
completely the job, without manual intervention.

In other words, what's the expected usage, workflow? I have not yet read the
source for apt-clone, but I would not think that that should be expected
from the regular users.


Thanks,
Rogério Brito.

Debian Release: wheezy/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.1.0-rc4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf-8, LC_CTYPE=pt_BR.utf-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages apt-clone depends on:
ii lsb-release 3.2-28
ii python 2.6.7-3
ii python-apt 0.8.0
ii python-argparse 1.2.1-1
ii python2.6 2.6.7-4
ii python2.7 2.7.2-5

Versions of packages apt-clone recommends:
ii dpkg-repack 1.35

apt-clone suggests no packages.


Rogério Brito : rbrito@{ime.usp.br,gmail.com} : GPG key 4096R/BCFCAAAA
http://rb.doesntexist.org : Packages for LaTeX : algorithms.berlios.de
DebianQA: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?...ime.usp.br



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