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Re: Bug#29104: X packages provide instead of replace



> > All of the font packages "Conflict and Provide" their older versions.  I
> > believe what was intended was "Conflict and Replace".  Otherwise, you
> > manually have to remove each old package.  And, since there should be
> > few packages depending upon font packages by name, it really shouldn't
> > provide the old package name.
> 
> They currently Conflict, Replace, and Provide their old names.  For
> versions -2 through -6 I did as you recommended, and got roundly bitched at
> about it.  By the GIMP maintainer, by others, .

It's unfortunate I don't have a log of the installation.  Dselect prompted
me with a conflict screen for every font package.  The 3.3.2.3a-7 version
does have all three, so perhaps it was -6 being installed at the time.


> As with so many of my decisions regarding X, if I do things one way I get
> people yelling at me, and if I do them another way I get a different group
> of people yelling at me.

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was yelling.  I assumed that it was
a simple mistake of having type "provides" instead of "replaces".


> Unless you can point me to some specific policy that says I should just
> Conflict and Replace, instead of Conflict, Replace, and Provide, I'm going
> to stick with what I did in -7 because it decreases the volume of abuse I
> receive in email and on the #debian IRC channel.

I agree.  However, there is no point to provide obsolete packages  for
very long, so what I would suggest is...

After the release, file bugs against any package depending on the obsolete
name.  After 2 weeks or so, feel free to remove the "provides:" line.

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

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