Re: Dpkg Update Proposal

[Bruce Sass <bsass@ecn.ab.ca>]

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Andrew Pimlott wrote:
<...>

Hmmm, would the concept of meta-packages and a scheme for sharing common
files (like the RH one described?) work.

Packages could have their name extended with the version:
foo_1.2.3-1 -> foo_1.2.3
foo_1.2.3-2 -> foo_1.2.3
foo_1.2.4-1 -> foo_1.2.4

and if the above were installed, "dpkg -l foo" would list foo_1.2.3 and
foo_1.2.4, other packages could depend on either the meta-package foo or a
specific foo_x.y.z (range).

Hmmm, how would you handle the names of the executables if you had
multiple versions of the same software on the system.  Fooex123 and
fooex124, then let the user sort it out; or would it be better to have the
environment or a wrapper set up so that fooex gets you either fooex123 or
fooex124, which ever was choosen as the default version of foo.

Interesting problem.... 
creating a chimera with rpm's version handling 
and dpkg's package management.


later,

	Bruce