Bug#30827: apt does not predepend on its shared libraries.

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

Package: apt
Version: all of them, starting with the one in the upgrades-i386 directory for hamm.
Priority: high

[ "Priority: high" means that maybe slink release has not to be delayed to
fix this bug, but it will be *much* better if it is fixed before the
release anyway. I'm not using "Severity" here to not being flamed ].

[ Note: I'm reporting this bug because I already know of a case of someone
  that managed to broke his apt because of this ].

apt should ideally use Pre-Depends instead of Depends for the shared
libraries it depends on, since most people use it is a fundamental part of
the packaging system.

The great inconvenience of having an apt which does not work because it
was upgraded before its shared libraries is by far much bigger than the
small inconvenience of a new apt not being unpacked because it does
not meet its pre-dependencies.

For this reason I think apt should use Pre-Depends for libstc++ and libc.

If we are publicising apt as the "ideal installation method", it should be
as robust as dpkg and dselect, and the Pre-Depends field will give it the
same robustness of an essential package.

If you have to ask in debian-devel before adding this Pre-Depends field,
please do so.

Thanks.

-- 
 "42d02b79cd43afc1b5485e75ae7a43c1" (a truly random sig)