Re: New dpkg overwrite behaviour undesirable

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

I wrote:
> Bruce Perens writes ("Re: New dpkg overwrite behaviour undesirable"):
> > You can add the --force-overwrite flag to make this a complaint rather
> > than an abort. I think Ian was attempting to get the problems fixed by
> > being draconian about them. I don't think this is going to work for the
> > public or beta 1.1 upgrade, though. We might have to wire --force-overwrite
> > on before then.
> 
> The solution is for packages to use the Replaces field to make dpkg be
> happy about overwriting the file(s).

Sorry, I should have been less terse - this is very misleading.

The correct solution is to do one of:
 - use Replaces (if you want to take over a file from one package to
      another)
 - use Conflicts and Repolaces (if you want to replace an entire
      package and have it disappear).
 - remove the file from one or other of the packages (if it should
      only be in one).
 - rename the files so that they don't clash (if the clash was a mistake).
 - use update-alternatives.

Ian.