Re: Mutt dependency on an MTA

[Brian Servis <servis@purdue.edu>]

*- On 26 Jul, [ Kaa ] wrote about "Mutt dependency on an MTA"
> I have qmail running as an MTA on my potato system. I think I didn't get it 
> as a .deb (probably because there isn't one? I am not sure), and just 
> downloaded it and installed in /usr/local. Well, yesterday I tried 'apt-get 
> install mutt' and guess what? apt refused to download mutt because it 
> depends on a "mail-transfer-agent" and such a beast was not to be found in 
> dpkg's database. I've tried persuading apt in a variety of ways, but it 
> didn't budge: "When I say no, I mean no!". So out of pure frustration I 

qmail is available in non-free as a source package(that builds itself
once installed?).  This is due to license issues with qmail.

If you want to keep your custom built version you can install the equivs
package.  Use the one from unstable/potato as it is a total rewrite from
the one in stable/slink.

This is the Description from the package

"Package: equivs 1.999.7

 Circumventing Debian package dependencies

 This is a dummy package which can be used to create Debian packages, which 
 only contain dependency information. 

 This way, you can make the Debian package management system believe that 
 equivalents to packages on which other packages do depend on are actually 
 installed. 

 Another possibility is creation of a meta package. When this package contains 
 a dependency as "Depends: a, b, c", then installing this package will also 
 select packages a, b and c. Instead of "Depends", you can also use 
 "Recommends:" or "Suggests:" for less demanding dependency. 

 Please note that this is a crude hack and if thoughtlessly used might possibly 
 do damage to your packaging system. And please note as well that using it is 
 not the recommended way of dealing with broken dependencies. Better file a 
 bug report instead. "

-- 
Brian 
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Mechanical Engineering                              servis@purdue.edu
Purdue University                   http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis
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