package splits

["James R. Van Zandt" <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com>]

I think we need to provide some automatic way to handle package
splits.

I have done some scans looking only for executables, and found 12
packages that have split, as listed below.  A routine upgrade from
hamm to the present slink will break X and a lot of other things.  Any
sysadmin that had these 12 packages installed would have to identify
and install 34 additional packages to restore the functionality he had
with hamm.

(I am now doing a more comprehensive scan to see whether there are more
splits, as I suspect.)

I don't think a "compatibility" package (an empty package under the
original name that "depends" on all the new packages) will work here,
since the hamm package name is still valid in slink.  It just does not
contain as much.  We could use "recommends" to bring in the other
packages, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of splitting the
package to begin with.

How about a script that examines /var/lib/dpkg/status for packages
that have split, and adds "install" entries for the new packages?  I
suppose it could be run either before or after "apt-get dist-upgrade".

				- Jim Van Zandt


graphics/ivtools-bin_0.6.2-4.deb split into       2 packages:
  devel/ivtools-dev
  graphics/ivtools-bin
mail/imap_4.2-1.deb split into       2 packages:
  mail/imap
  mail/ipopd
misc/plan_1.6.1-7.deb split into       2 packages:
  misc/netplan
  misc/plan
net/netstd_3.07-2.deb split into      10 packages:
  mail/vrfy
  net/bwnfsd
  net/netstd
  net/nfs-server
  net/rexec
  net/talk
  net/talkd
  net/telnet
  net/telnetd
  non-free/net/pcnfsd
news/slrn_0.9.4.3-4.deb split into       2 packages:
  news/slrn
  news/slrnpull
text/a2ps_4.10.2-4.deb split into       2 packages:
  net/mime-support
  text/a2ps
utils/nosql_0.9-0.deb split into       2 packages:
  utils/nosql
  utils/nosql-fastops
web/apache_1.3.0-2.deb split into       2 packages:
  web/apache
  web/apache-common
web/php3_3.0-2.deb split into       2 packages:
  web/php3
  web/php3-cgi
x11/wmaker_0.14.1-7.deb split into       2 packages:
  x11/asclock
  x11/wmaker
x11/xbase_3.3.2.2-4.deb split into      16 packages:
  mail/xmh
  x11/rstart
  x11/rstartd
  x11/twm
  x11/xbase
  x11/xbase-clients
  x11/xdm
  x11/xext
  x11/xf86setup
  x11/xfs
  x11/xlib6g-dev
  x11/xmodmap
  x11/xproxy
  x11/xserver-common
  x11/xsm
  x11/xterm
x11/xserver-vga16_3.3.2.2-4.deb split into       2 packages:
  x11/xf86setup
  x11/xserver-vga16