Bruce:
> We can make your proposal simpler by using virtual package names to
> find the libraries. [ eg Provides: libX11.so.6 ]
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
> As it stands there are a couple of problems:
> [...] we need to depend on a particular version of the package
> [...] some packages contain many different shared libraries.
OK. Have each library-provider automaticaly include a "Provides: " for
each library that it provides, with the name indicating the
architecture, executable format, soname, and major and _minor_ numbers
of the library.
The tool that looks for library dependencies in packages finds
the packages that provide virtual package names matching the libraries
it needs, and adds a dependency for the _actual_ package and its version
rather than for the virtual package name.
This is still overloading "Provides:" for half the process. If you don't
like that, you can put it in another field ("Exports:"?). This still allows
you to leverage on the existing database rather than to add another file
to the package.
Thanks
Bruce
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Bruce Perens AB6YM Bruce@Pixar.com http://www.hams.com/