Possible solution to Local dependency satisfaction
One of the biggest problems with the current packaging system (ignoring
issues of dselect interfaces) is that there is no mechanism for satisfying
dependencies with programs that are located in /usr/local.
If the sys admin builds a sendmail package of their own and installs it in
/usr/local, dpkg and dselect have no current mechanism for recognizing
that fact and trys to force the installation of sendmail anyway.
If dpkg/dselect were able to check a file in /usr/local and obtain
dependency information from that file then the sys admin could declare
dependencies there for packages existing in /usr/local.
If dpkg looks for a file called .depends in /usr/local and considers all
dependencies listed there as fulfilled, this would greatly aid the local
sys admin in maintaining the system as desired.
The file need only contain lines like:
sendmail 8.8.4
to give dpkg the necessary information to decide about dependency
satisfaction.
I will finally be getting some time this weekend to begin work on the
dpkg-lib reorganization I volunteered for. I will look for the proper
place to add this "feature" during my code evaluation and report back on
the difficulty of implementing this idea.
Any comments?
Luck,
Dwarf
------------ --------------
aka Dale Scheetz Phone: 1 (904) 656-9769
Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
e-mail: dwarf@polaris.net Tallahassee, FL 32308
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