apt-get "Unable to locate package" with a glob

Question

I'm trying to uninstall the Pantheon desktop. I use a star glob to uninstall all packages with a name that starts with "pantheon-".

rolf@DRGMC01:~$ sudo apt-get remove pantheon-*
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb'

OK, let's install the missing package then.

rolf@DRGMC01:~$ sudo apt-get install pantheon-debian-repos
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  pantheon-debian-repos
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 16 not upgraded.
Need to get 3,682 B of archives.
After this operation, 19.5 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://gandalfn.ovh/debian stretch-loki/main amd64 pantheon-debian-repos all 0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1 [3,682 B]
Fetched 3,682 B in 0s (12.2 kB/s)                
Selecting previously unselected package pantheon-debian-repos.
(Reading database ... 180511 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb ...
Unpacking pantheon-debian-repos (0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1) ...
Setting up pantheon-debian-repos (0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1) ...
Importing pantheon-debian keyring
Warning: apt-key should not be used in scripts (called from postinst maintainerscript of the package pantheon-debian-repos)
OK

Maybe now?

rolf@DRGMC01:~$ sudo apt-get remove pantheon-*  --ignore-missing
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb'

No. Is it really installed?

rolf@DRGMC01:~$ dpkg -l |grep '^ii  panth'
ii  pantheon-agent-polkit                    0.1.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1+r1               amd64        Polkit authorization designed for Pantheon
ii  pantheon-debian-repos                    0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1                    all          Pantheon Debian Repository configuration
ii  pantheon-dpms-helper                     1:0.4.3.1+bzr235-0+pantheon+stretch+loki2       all          script and settings for X DPMS
ii  pantheon-mail                            1.0.6-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1+r1               amd64        Email client

  etc.

What is going on here?

Why would apt-get not see a package that is installed?
Why would it care about this package at all?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '18 at 15:50

It looks as though you have pantheon-debian-repos_0.4-0+pantheon+stretch+loki1_all.deb in your current directory, and pantheon-* is expanded to this by the shell.

What you need is:

sudo apt-get remove 'pantheon-*'

or:

sudo apt-get remove "pantheon-*"

apt-get "Unable to locate package" with a glob

1 Answers1