svgalib dpkg interactions

[Richard Kettlewell <richard@elmail.co.uk>]

I've been trying to sort out the new svgalib packages on a friends
system, and I'd like to know what I'm doing wrong.

He has svgalib-1.25-4 installed to start with, and I'm trying to
upgrade his system to the 1.28-6 packages.  This ought to be possible
without using the --force-* options.

My svgalib packages have the folling properties:

 old debian package, version 0.939000.
 size 189377 bytes: control archive= 567, main archive= 188797.
     511 bytes,    12 lines      control              
      26 bytes,     3 lines   *  postinst             #!/bin/sh
      26 bytes,     3 lines   *  postrm               #!/bin/sh
 PACKAGE: aout-svgalib
 VERSION: 1.28-6
 MAINTAINER: Richard Kettlewell <richard@uk.geeks.org>
 DEPENDS: svgalib1,libc.so.4
 PROVIDES: svgalib
[...]

 old debian package, version 0.939000.
 size 102736 bytes: control archive= 1244, main archive= 101478.
      46 bytes,     2 lines      conffiles            
     557 bytes,    14 lines      control              
     781 bytes,    33 lines   *  postinst             #!/bin/sh
     897 bytes,    34 lines   *  preinst              #!/bin/sh
 PACKAGE: svgalib1
 VERSION: 1.28-6
 MAINTAINER: Richard Kettlewell <richard@uk.geeks.org>
 DEPENDS: libc5
 CONFLICTS: svgalib (<=1.28-2)
 RECOMMENDS: svgalib-bin
[...]

 old debian package, version 0.939000.
 size 9130 bytes: control archive= 475, main archive= 8642.
     475 bytes,    12 lines      control              
 PACKAGE: svgalib1-bin
 VERSION: 1.28-6
 MAINTAINER: Richard Kettlewell <richard@uk.geeks.org>
 DEPENDS: svgalib1
 PROVIDES: svgalib-bin
[...]

 old debian package, version 0.939000.
 size 221250 bytes: control archive= 527, main archive= 220710.
     559 bytes,    14 lines      control              
 PACKAGE: svgalib1-dev
 VERSION: 1.28-6
 MAINTAINER: Richard Kettlewell <richard@uk.geeks.org>
 DEPENDS: svgalib1
 CONFLICTS: svgalib-dev
 PROVIDES: svgalib-dev
[...]

What I want to be able to do is say:

	dpkg --remove svgalib

...to mark the svgalib package as needing removal.  Ghostscript
depends on it, so it doesn't actually get removed straight away.
Anyway it's now in the state as follows:

Package: svgalib
Status: deinstall ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: graphics
Maintainer: Ted Hajek <tedhajek@boombox.micro.umn.edu>
Version: 1.25-4
[...]

Then I say

	dpkg --install svgalib1-1.28-6.deb aout-svgalib-1.28-6.deb

but I get this:

dpkg: considering removing svgalib in favour of svgalib1 ...
dpkg: no, cannot remove svgalib:
 gs depends on svgalib
  svgalib is to be removed.
dpkg: regarding svgalib1-1.28-6.deb containing svgalib1:
 svgalib1 conflicts with svgalib (<=1.28-2)
  svgalib (version 1.25-4) is installed.
dpkg: error processing svgalib1-1.28-6.deb (--install):
 conflicting packages - not installing svgalib1
Selecting previously deselected package aout-svgalib.
(Reading database ... 16737 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking aout-svgalib (from aout-svgalib-1.28-6.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of aout-svgalib:
 aout-svgalib depends on svgalib1; however:
  Package svgalib1 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing aout-svgalib (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 svgalib1-1.28-6.deb
 aout-svgalib

Now, what I want to happen for a smooth transition is for the fact
that aout-svgalib will provide: svgalib to be recognised by dpkg and
therefore willingly replace the old svgalib package with svgalib1 and
aout-svgalib.

What do I have to put in the control file to achieve this?

dpkg version is 1.0.17...

-- 
Richard Kettlewell
http://www.elmail.co.uk/staff/richard/                    richard@uk.geeks.org

Eat a live toad before breakfast and nothing worse will happen to you all day.