Re: List of bugs that *must* be fixed before freezing Hamm

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Santiago Vila wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, David Engel wrote:
> 
> > We've been through this before.  It is unrealistic and impractical for
> > libc to add a Conflicts: clause for every buggy package out there.
> >
> > As far as I'm concerned there is an implicit assumption that all
> > packages on a user's system are up to date.
> 
> As far as I know, we have told our users that mixing packages from
> different distributions is safe (in general).
> 
We also say that with this major change in fundamental libraries that you
should upgrade to the new library versions of the packages you use. This
is the main reason that "all packages must be converted to libc6" was one
of our release goals, to provide those needed upgrades.

> The Debian FAQ says:
> 
>      * Package A conflicts with Package B when A will not operate if B is
>        installed on the system.
> 
> In this case, the old emacs does not "operate" if libc6 is installed on
> the system. This is not the same as being "buggy", it does not work at
> all! (it core dumps and exits).

Please re-read the line in the faq, keeping in mind that you wish for
libc6 to be "A" (the package that conflicts) and emacs to be B. The
sentance does NOT say:

Package A conflicts with Package B when B will not operate if A is
installed on the system.

Which is how you wish to interpret it.

This behavior is not the fault of libc6, but caused by an inadequacy
in the emacs package. The fault is corrected by upgrading emacs. If the
user is doing an upgrade then the fixed version of emacs will be installed
unless the user specifically asks dselect not to do so. Doing so is the
same as using --force and the results are the responsibility of the user.

As David said, it is not the responsibility of libc6 to manage the
upgrading of buggy packages.

Unless someone can make a clear explanation for why emacs will not upgrade
without libc6's help, I consider this bug fixed by the newer version of
emacs, and not the concern of libc6 at all.

Luck,

Dwarf
-- 
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