Bug#1126590: apt: package marked as half-configured (by apt search but not by apt list) cannot be purged

David Kalnischkies <[email protected]> Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:38:25 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.apt.devel
Message-ID	<aXuK18avIumNneb7__45665.0097666838$1769708253$gmane$org@crossbow>

Am Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 10:37:47AM +0100, schrieb didier gaumet:
> package libtext-brew-perl is stated half-configured by apt search but not by
[…]
> didier@hp-notebook14:~$ apt search '~c'
> libtext-brew-perl/stable 0.02-3 all
>   perl implementation of Brew edit distance

So, as Julian already mentioned, this matches the string '~c' in the
description, specifically the URL given at the end.

I want to add through that `~c` is not matching `half-configured` even
in commands that support patterns. As half-configured is an intermediate
status that a package only ends up with in error cases there exists no
apt pattern for this state.

`~c` is matching packages that are not installed (= were previously
`removed`), but have residual configuration files left (= they were not
`purged`). It is the shorthand for `?config-files`. dpkg lists them with
status `rc`, hence the naming.


Best regards

David Kalnischkies

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