Bug 1395680

Summary:	`pkcon -c -1 ...` does not refresh cache, nor does `pkcon -c 0 ...`
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Alan Jenkins <alan.christopher.jenkins>
Component:	PackageKit	Assignee:	Richard Hughes <rhughes>
Status:	CLOSED EOL	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	26	CC:	jonathan, klember, rdieter, rhughes, smparrish
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Last Closed:	2018-05-29 11:31:57 UTC	Type:	Bug
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Description Alan Jenkins 2016-11-16 12:28:12 UTC

Description of problem:

Several times I have seen `pkcon -c -1` suggested as a way to insist that the cache be refreshed. E.g. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1306992#c10

Also this would be one valid interpretation of

1. the manpage text

-c, --cache-age AGE
Set the maximum acceptable age for cached metadata, in seconds. Use -1 for 'never'.

2. the fact that the "special" value of `0` does *not* force the cache to be refreshed either

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
PackageKit-1.1.3-2.fc24.x86_64

How reproducible: has been bugging me for a while now; I don't remember seeing it work the last few times I tried it.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. use wireshark to look at outgoing packets I guess
2. pkcon -c -1 install <not-installed-package> # don't hit "y"

Actual results:

no metadata is re-feteched

Expected results:

there should be some value for the `-c` option which forces the freshness of metadata to be re-checked against the package servers. I assume this special value was intended to be `-1`; perhaps it was chosen after users tried `0` and found it was not interpreted naturally.

Additional info:

Documentation should probably be more explicit, e.g. expand 'never' to 'never refresh the cache' if that was intended. `pkcon -c 0` is an *undocumented* special case - the only valid interpretation of the documentation is "refresh always, because cache is never less than 0 seconds old".

`pkcon -c 1` appears to work as expected (effectively forcing a refresh, because cache isn't less than 1 second old).

pkcon is probably not used in scripts. IMO it _could_ be acceptable to fix pkcon by making `-c 0` behave naturally as above and `-c -1` mean "never refresh the cache". This assumes that "never refresh the cache" is a useful option. (offline operation?)

`pkcon refresh force` should *reject* the -c option. Currently the `force` appears to be overriding the `-c -1`.

Comment 1 Fedora End Of Life 2017-07-25 23:54:11 UTC

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Comment 2 Fedora End Of Life 2018-05-03 08:20:03 UTC

This message is a reminder that Fedora 26 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 26. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '26'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version'
to a later Fedora version.

Thank you for reporting this issue and we are sorry that we were not
able to fix it before Fedora 26 is end of life. If you would still like
to see this bug fixed and are able to reproduce it against a later version
of Fedora, you are encouraged  change the 'version' to a later Fedora
version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's
lifetime, sometimes those efforts are overtaken by events. Often a
more recent Fedora release includes newer upstream software that fixes
bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 3 Fedora End Of Life 2018-05-29 11:31:57 UTC

Fedora 26 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2018-05-29. Fedora 26
is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any
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