Re: Upgrade procedure for tetex
'Chow Chi-Ming wrote:'
>
>>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Fearnley <cjf@netaxs.com> writes:
>I believe the original intention was that since teTeX is a well
>designed and _complete_ (La)TeX installation for Unix platforms and is
>quickly becoming the de facto standard, we should completely replace
>the old Debian TeX with teTeX, ie tetex should Conflict every single
>old Deban TeX package except the obvious packages that are not in
>tetex, eg untex. Mixing tetex with packages/files that mess with the
>tetex internal is not a good idea IMHO.
Tetex can't Conflict with every old TeX package; otherwise it can't be
installed by dselect. At minimum tetex must Provide: all the old TeX
packages which it replaces.
Please look again at my packaging suggestions. Please rethink what
"Conflicts", and "Provides" means. I think it is fundamental to Debian
packages that they maintain easy upgradeability. Although it would be
interesting if dpkg had a means to wholesale remove a bunch of packages
based on the promise that the new packages will replace them, this is
not the time to discuss this feature addition to dpkg. For now it
would seem best to try to fix the broken tetex packages.
Another thought: I think you may need to use recursive dependencies
here: tetex-base may need to depend on tetex-bin and vice versa.
There are lots of tricks like this. I hope my suggestions help you to
fix tetex.
>Chris> I skipped several provides some of which /may/ be necessary.
>Chris> If the package isn't depended upon by anything in Available,
>Chris> then it doesn't need to have provides. Everything else
>Chris> absolutely needs to have provides (this is the biggest bug with
>Chris> the current packaging).
>
>Can you list the packages which are outside of the tex section and
>which Depend on some old Debian TeX packages?
zgrep 'Depends:.*PGKNAME' /path/to/rex/Packages
>Chris> But it's going to take a lot of work to fix. I still think
>Chris> it's prudent to hold off until the next release.
>
>All your suggestions are not serious problems and the only real
>problem is having to completely remove the old Debian TeX before
>installing tetex. there are already some good suggestions.
But that problem is the crux. I found the other suggestions
unsatisfactory. Any package that breaks dselect is broken and should
be fixed. tetex is fixable. Wishing that dpkg has some feature that
it doesn't have is NOT easily fixable.
>I really like to see tetex in 1.3.
Then work on reworking the dependency, replaces and provides so that
it upgrades easily.
I need TeX too! [Although somehow I have managed to find the old TeX
useable.]
--
Christopher J. Fearnley | Linux/Internet Consulting
cjf@netaxs.com, cjf@onit.net | UNIX SIG Leader at PACS
http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf | (Philadelphia Area Computer Society)
ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf | Design Science Revolutionary
"Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller | Explorer in Universe
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