yay attempts to install net-new AUR package for dependencies when dependency is already satisfied

[eyanulis]

Affected Version

yay v12.0.4.r21.g490ebe4 - libalpm v13.0.2
Also affects the v12.0.4 release tag, without the behavioral inconsistency - i.e. v12.0.4 always tries to install ceph-libs. Will explain in further detail below.

Describe the bug

In AUR, ceph is distributed as:

• Source: ceph and ceph-libs, which require compilation
• Binary: ceph-bin and ceph-libs-bin, which do not require compilation

ceph-bin provides ceph, and ceph-libs-bin provides ceph-libs.

I have the -bin variants installed, since the compilation time of the source variants is very long.

Both ceph-bin and ceph-libs-bin have recently been upgraded from 17.2.5-6 to 17.2.6-1. It should be sufficient to upgrade both of these packages in place to satisfy all dependencies.

However, yay v12.0.4 (i.e. the non-git release of yay) incorrectly attempts to install the ceph-libs source package as a dependency. This behavior is consistent:

[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ yay
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Searching AUR for updates...
:: Searching databases for updates...
:: 3 Packages to upgrade/install.
3  aur/ceph-bin       17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
2  aur/ceph-libs               -> 17.2.6-1
1  aur/ceph-libs-bin  17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
==> Packages to exclude: (eg: "1 2 3", "1-3", "^4" or repo name)
 -> Excluding packages may cause partial upgrades and break systems
==> ^C

I tested yay-git to see if #2147 might help here (since the behavior seems kinda similar to #2135). However, with yay-git v12.0.4.r21.g490ebe4 the behavior gets stranger: consecutive runs of yay sometimes do try to install ceph-libs, and sometimes do not try to install ceph-libs. Condensed output below; full --debug output will be attached.

[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ date && yay 
Thu May 11 04:54:40 PM MDT 2023
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Searching AUR for updates...
:: Searching databases for updates...
:: 2 packages to upgrade/install.
2  aur/ceph-bin       17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
1  aur/ceph-libs-bin  17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
==> packages to exclude: (eg: "1 2 3", "1-3", "^4" or repo name)
 -> Excluding packages may cause partial upgrades and break systems
==> ^C
[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ 
[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ date && yay 
Thu May 11 04:54:45 PM MDT 2023
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Searching AUR for updates...
:: Searching databases for updates...
:: 1 dependency will also be installed for this operation
   aur/ceph-libs   -> 17.2.6-1

:: 2 packages to upgrade/install.
2  aur/ceph-bin       17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
1  aur/ceph-libs-bin  17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
==> packages to exclude: (eg: "1 2 3", "1-3", "^4" or repo name)
 -> Excluding packages may cause partial upgrades and break systems
==> ^C
[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ 
[eyanulis@crimson ~]$ date && yay 
Thu May 11 04:54:54 PM MDT 2023
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 community is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Searching AUR for updates...
:: Searching databases for updates...
:: 2 packages to upgrade/install.
2  aur/ceph-bin       17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
1  aur/ceph-libs-bin  17.2.5-6 -> 17.2.6-1
==> packages to exclude: (eg: "1 2 3", "1-3", "^4" or repo name)
 -> Excluding packages may cause partial upgrades and break systems
==> ^C

I cannot identify a pattern any more specific than "sometimes it gets the dependency wrong, sometimes it gets it right". I hesitate to claim the behavior is non-deterministic, but it "feels" that way.

Reproduction Steps

1. Have ceph-bin 17.2.5-6 and ceph-libs-bin 17.2.5-6 installed.
2. Execute yay (implied yay -Syu) which will identify that both packages can be upgraded to 17.2.6-1.
   3a. On yay v12.0.4, observe that yay (seemingly) always tries to install ceph-libs as a net-new package.
   3b. On yay-git v12.0.4.r21.g490ebe4, observe that yay intermittently/inconsistently tries to install ceph-libs as a net-new package.

Expected behavior

ceph-libs should not be installed, because this dependency is already satisfied by the installed package ceph-libs-bin.

Output

Note: These were captured with yay --debug -a to limit operations to AUR-only. Behavior still occurs without -a flag.
yay-config.txt
debug-output-wrong.txt
debug-output-good.txt

[Jguer]

Hey, thanks for reporting this, I haven't verified but I think it makes sense

The TODO in #2135 should fix this, just haven't been able to find the time to implement it