Thanks for the hint, I hadn't heard of this one. Should be built-in to apt, I think! :)

It seems like you are somewhat new to the Debian utopia. Here is another great package that a lot of people are not aware of `apt-listbugs.` After you say "yes" to apt-get upgrade, apt-listbugs queries bts for bugs in the packages:version you are about to install. If any bugs are found you have the chance to review the report to see if it applies to you and if it does you can have apt-listbugs pin the package so that the new buggy version is not installed. Every night at midnight (i think) apt-listbugs queries bts to see if the bugs are still relevant and unpins the package if the bug is no longer relevant. It is especially handy for testing/unstable/experimental.

By default it only prompts you for grave-serious bugs. I have been bitten a couple of times by "important" bugs so set listbugs up so that it also checks for "important" bugs. This makes it a tiny bit noisier but not enough to make me switch to the defaults. Changing the severities is easy:

   diff --git a/apt/apt.conf.d/10apt-listbugs b/apt/apt.conf.d/10apt-listbugs
   index 13b5409..857f3f4 100644
   --- a/apt/apt.conf.d/10apt-listbugs
   +++ b/apt/apt.conf.d/10apt-listbugs  @@ -4,5 +4,5 
   @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs apt";};
   DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs "";
   DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs::Version "3";
   DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/sbin/apt-listbugs::InfoFD "20";
  -AptListbugs::Severities "critical,grave,serious";
  +AptListbugs::Severities "critical,grave,serious,important";
   // AptListbugs::IgnoreRegexp "FTBFS";