On Saturday 14 May 2022 at 14:37:41, o1bigtenor via Dng wrote:

> Greetings
>
> I was trying to clean up my /usr/bin directory so was discarding older
> versions of software.

You should never manually delete binaries or library files which have been
installed by a package management system. If you want to get rid of them use
something like "aptitude purge python3.9" so that:

a) the package management system can tell you if this seems not to be a good
idea

b) the packagement system knows it has happened if it allows you to go ahead

> Had python3.10 available so thought (foolishly - - now clear) that
> python3.9 was a great candidate for discard.
> Nope nix and no way.
>
> Now I have myself more than a bit of a mess with my installed python
> systems.
>
> Suggestions as to how to repair my 'mess'?

Have you tried simply "aptitude install python3.9" or possibly "aptitude
reinstall python3.9" etc (for each of the versions of python which you seem to
be having problems with)?

> (Following is what the apt update upgrade process barfs up.

Not quite sure what you mean by that - why are you trying to do an upgrade
when your system is currently in a broken state? You want to restore it to
working as it was, before you try to do something as major as an upgrade.

> Errors were encountered while processing:
> python2.7-minimal
> python3.9-minimal
> python3.9
> python2.7
> python3.9-dev

So, were you fiddling with both python2.7 and python3.9, or did you delete
python2.7 some time ago and you've only just started seeing the consequences?

I'll say again (slghtly dfifferently): a package management system is for
installing and managing the software on your machine, so use it for that and
don't try to over-ride it manually. Best case: you both get confused; worst
case: you can't reboot, or use the package management tool itself.

My other (only slightly) tongue-in-cheek comment would be "restoring from
backup might be your simplest option in a case like this".


Antony.

--
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
You'll feel much better about things once you do.

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