What does the “ip” status in the aptitude package list mean?

Question

What does the ip status in the aptitude package list mean? For example:

$ aptitude search some_package
ip some_package description

Answer 1

The status means that the package is installed and will be deleted by the aptitude install command (without arguments).

Aptitude can put off actions by executing the acting command with the --schedule-only option.

# aptitude --schedule-only purge some_package

After issuing the command the package won't be uninstalled right away — it will be put off and get the p flag in the package list:

# aptitude search some_package
ip some_package description

To perform all pending actions one should execute the following command:

# aptitude install

To cancel the pending purge you should use the keep action:

# aptitude keep some_package

After issuing the command the p flag will be deleted from the package list.

Answer 2

The manpage for aptitude says:

Unless you pass the -F option, the output of aptitude search will look something like this:

[...]

Each search result is listed on a separate line. The first character of each line indicates the current state of the package: the most common states are p, meaning that no trace of the package exists on the system, c, meaning that the package was deleted but its configuration files remain on the system, i, meaning that the package is installed, and v, meaning that the package is virtual. The second character indicates the stored action (if any; otherwise a blank space is displayed) to be performed on the package, with the most common actions being i, meaning that the package will be installed, d, meaning that the package will be deleted, and p, meaning that the package and its configuration files will be removed. If the third character is A, the package was automatically installed.

For a complete list of the possible state and action flags, see the section “Accessing Package Information” in the aptitude reference guide. To customize the output of search, see the command-line options -F and --sort.

-> "some_package" is already installed on your system.

Answer 3

The package is installed and is going to be purged. Check out this part of the aptitude users guide for a really good explanation of the flags.