Re: pkg scripts/dependency issues
* 'cduck' Chris Grierson (cduck@u.washington.edu) spake thusly:
... 'dpkg *.deb' will install packages in the correct order
> *so as to satisfy dependencies*, but that isn't the issue. the issue is
> whether the 'preinst' scripts should be checking for installation status
> of a package by means of either 'installed' or 'unpacked', meaning that
> it is about to be installed, just like the one running the script is.
>
> in the case of doing something like 'dpkg -i j2sdk1.3*.deb mozilla*.deb',
> and j2sdk1.3 gets installed first (since neither depend on each other,
> and j2sdk1.3 is specified first *and* for good measure, it's lexically
> first), it won't install a crucial link to get mozilla to use the java
> plugin.
>
> is this an inherent issue with the package scripts, or with batch-/
> mass-installing packages or ???
"Or". Consider that there may be many browsers and many JVMs on the
same system. Not all of them may be under dpkg's control. Some
browsers will work with some JVM plugins, but not others. You'd
have to jump through many hoops to get auto-configuration to work
even in a remotely sane fashion. The alternative (which, BTW, has
been Unix Way all along) is to let user RTFM and run "ln" by hand.
In a more general case, the bug would be in the package scripts,
so it's maintainer's fault (hence my initial reply about trusting
the maintainers).
Dima
--
"Mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of
entities." -- corollary to Occam's Razor
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