Re: IMPORTANT: What can we do about the base package?
bruce@pixar.com (Bruce Perens) wrote on 02.03.97 in <[🔎] m0w1ODk-00IdU6C@golem.pixar.com>:
> I think the only solution right now is to do brain surgery on
> /var/lib/dpkg/status to forcibly remove the paragraph for the base
> package. Ugly, I'm sorry.
That's what I suspect, too.
So, unless Ian comes up with a better idea, I think we want to do
something like the following.
Dpkg experts: will this work?
1. Make sure that the packages that replace base really include everything
they should. I seem to recall that some directories didn't make it yet,
for example.
2. Make a new base package, version something like 99:obsolete, that pre-
depends on all the packages neded to replace base, thus making sure those
are installed before the preinst of the new base gets to run.
3. Have the preinst of the new package exchange the
/var/lib/dpkg/info/base file for either an empty file, or a file
containing only stuff that is _really_ obsolete (/usr/doc/base or stuff
like that).
4. Have the new base package be empty, not essential, and so on. Or maybe
even have the preinst tell people to purge the now-cleaned-up base and
fail.
5. Make sure this actually works before uploading the package.
6. Make sure this actually works before releasing 1.3.
MfG Kai
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