Re: gcc backup in g77 package?

[joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl (joost witteveen)]

Together with the old and new gcc maintainers (as wel as Larz),
it was already decided to change the /usr/bin/gcc binary in
the gcc-2.7.2 package. Thus the just released g77 package
needs gcc-2.7.2-3 (not yet released).
> 
> joost witteveen writes ("gcc backup in g77 package?"):
> > But now what if somebody reinstalls gcc-2.7.2? This will inevetably remove
> > the link to gcc-g77, and then fortran doesn't work anymore...
> > 
> > (I'm already going to make gcc conflict with any other version of gcc but
> > 2.7.2, as g77 is promised to be incompatible with gcc-2.8)
> > 
> > BTW, the "gcc-g77" is supposed to be identical to gcc from gcc-2.7.2,
> > the only difference being the knowledge about fortran. So, maybe I
> > shouldn't bother about making backups of gcc? (The error messages
> > >from  "gcc-g77" when g77 itself is removed probably is a lot more
> > intellegent than the one from gcc itself, which says something about
> > interpreting the .f file as object file or something).
> 
> There is a need for this kind of thing fairly often, and I'm planning
> to provide a way for a package (or administrator) to `override' a file
> from a Debian package.
> 
> Unfortunately that's not here yet, but it'll turn up soon I hope.
> 
> > I guess this means that gcc-2.7.2-deb should be changed to take into
> > account for the gcc-g77 binary -- but real problems start to come when
> > (if) a GNU pascal comile comes out ... Maybe we should then just all
> > provide a gcc that knows about c, c++, fortran, pascal, 
> > (ada, lisp, cobol, .......)
> 
> This is a worse problem - even the feature I propose above won't help
> here, because it'll end up with several packages all competing to
> replace the same file.  I think the only solution here is to make sure
> that there is one `super' version of the file that people can install,
> and then force people to install that one, rather than having n
> different versions all incompatible.
> 
> Ian.
> 
> 


-- 
joost witteveen
            joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl
          joostje@dds.hacktic.nl
--
There's no substitute for reading README's.
(except for using Debian, and typing "dpkg -i package.deb").