On Thu, Jun 01, 2006 at 01:39:30PM +0200, Daniel Kobras wrote:
> On Wed, May 31, 2006 at 11:52:53AM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > > > I've heard this stated before, but if it was ever true, it's definitely not
> > > > the case with apt (or with britney), and it's not mentioned in policy.
> > > It may well cause problems to britney, but policy section 7.5.2
> > > ('Replacing whole packages, forcing their removal') definitely mentions
> > > the behaviour of Replaces+Conflicts.
> > It explains Replaces+Conflicts. It does *not* say "create a dummy package
> > that can't be installed because it depends on the thing that conflicts it".
> Indeed, but current policy makes it very tempting to do so.
> Replaces+Conflicts are the documented way to replace a package.
> Versioned conflicts on earlier packages are explicitly discouraged, and
> one needs a Depends to pull in the renamed package. Which leads directly
> to the above relationships and all their problems. The Developer's
> Reference also only talks about Replaces+Conflicts in the section about
> renaming packages. Both documents should probably be updated, so which
> one do you like best:
> Method A
> Package: oldpkg
> Depends: newpkg
> Version: 1.0
> Description: transitional dummy package
> Package: newpkg
> Replaces: oldpkg (<< 1.0)
> Method B
> Package: oldpkg
> Depends: newpkg
> Files:
> /usr/share/doc/oldpkg -> /usr/share/doc/newpkg
> (and nothing else)
> Package: newpkg
> Replaces: oldpkg
> Provides: oldpkg
> Files:
> (...)
> /usr/share/doc/oldpkg -> /usr/share/doc/newpkg
> Method A relies on the user or external programs like deborphan to clean
> up the dummy package. Method B gets rid of it automatically, using a
> dpkg feature, but requires an extra symlink in newpkg.
Oooh, Method B is one I haven't seen proposed before in the context of dummy
packages. That looks far more elegant to me than the alternatives. Have
you tested that dpkg really does do the right thing here, given that the
replacing package gets installed first (since it's a dependency)?
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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