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Re: Breaks in lenny (was Re: Task list for a policy release)



On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 08:05:54PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Russ Allbery writes ("Re: Task list for a policy release"):
> > #379150: Documentation for Breaks in dpkg

> > This support was added in dpkg 1.14.6, so I'm inclined to accept and
> > commit this patch.  I trust Ian to document the feature, and the wording
> > seems fine to me.  The only caveat is that I don't know if we're ready to
> > accept Breaks fields in the archive already, and I'm not sure who to ask
> > about that or how to decide it (ftp-master?).

> I would suggest not using Breaks in lenny (unfortunately), except for
> the special case where the combination to be avoided exists only in
> lenny.

> Any Breaks in packages in lenny will be ignored by the package system
> when upgrading from etch to lenny.

No, they won't.  The etch version of dpkg parses the Breaks: field, and
refuses to install any packages including this field.  This was deemed the
minimal level of Breaks: support that was needed for etch under the
circumstances, given that adding full Breaks: support was deemed too
intrusive at that point of the release cycle.

That can still make for some messy dist-upgrades if a key package is
rejected in the middle of an install, but it doesn't result in an
inconsistent set of packages being installed.  I do lean towards agreeing
that we shouldn't use it in lenny.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com                                     vorlon@debian.org


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