How does the Replaces control field work?

[Marco Budde <Budde@tu-harburg.de>]

Hi!

I´ve got a small problem with my doc-linux-{text,html}
packages. Both packages replaces the old doc-linux package,
which included the ASCII and HTML versions of the Linux
FAQ.

At the moment the doc-linux-{html,text} packages uses 
"Conflicts: doc-linux". Some people think that this could
cause update problems. And they have told me to use
"Replaces: ".

But at the moment I´m not 100% sure how "Replaces" works.
Is it possible to use "Replaces: doc-linux" in both 
packages? Is it possible for the user to install two
packages containing the same "Replaces: " field?

Will dselect/apt install the doc-linux-{text,html} packages 
if the user updates a system with an installed 
doc-linux package (no doc-linux-{text,html} package)?

cu, Marco

--
Uni: Budde@tu-harburg.de           Fido: 2:240/5202.15
Mailbox: mbudde@hqsys.antar.com    http://www.tu-harburg.de/~semb2204/