Re: APT [was Re: Is this really the right thing to do?]

[Raul Miller <rdm@test.legislate.com>]

Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
> if package 'libfoo' is automatically selected because i installed
> package 'foobar', and i later write a program in /usr/local which
> makes use of libfoo, then how can that be kept track of?

(1) That, to some degree, is a problem now -- as we do not provide any
tools to track local dependencies, a reworked library can potentially
break local programs at a very inconvenient time [long after it's a
current issue, when dpkg finally upgrades all the packages relevant to
a Replaces:/Conflicts: set of tags].

(2) If you've manually selected the -dev package, and the -dev package
depends on the package which provides the library, you should be ok
for most cases.

(3) I agree that a paranoid admin should be able to turn this feature
of apt off.

-- 
Raul