perl-5.005 indirectly conflicts with perl-5.004 (was Re: apt bug?)

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Tue, Jul 27, 1999 at 12:11:54PM +0200, Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> perl-5.005-base conflicts with perl ...
> 
> So if apt tries to install pilot-manager, he will try to install perl
> which will remove perl-5.005 and that will cause the removing of
> perl-tk breaking pilot-manager dependencies ...
>
> Nice isn't it ? Darren, when will you update pilot-manager and when
> will you upload pilot-link's NMU you've prepared ? It's really time
> now.

this reminds me of something odd i saw a few days ago when i finally
started upgrading my machines to perl-5.005 (btw, you've all done an
excellent job on the transition - it's been a lot smoother and safer
than i expected it to be).

is perl-5.005 supposed to conflict with perl-5.004? you can't (easily)
have both installed at the same time. you can have perl-5.004-base
as well as the 5.005 packages, but a conflicting Recommends prevents
selection of both perl-5.004 and perl-5.005

i.e. perl-5.004 recommends perl-5.004-doc, which conflicts with
perl-5.005-doc. perl-5.005 recommends perl-5.005-doc, which conflicts
with perl-5.004-doc.

experienced dselect users will have no great trouble with this - press
'R' to revert to selected packages, then press 'Q' to ignore the
pseudo-conflict. novice users will be trapped in a never-ending conflict
resolution where every time they hit Enter, all their perl packages will
be de-selected.

please, please, please kill the Recommends.  use Suggests: instead.

Recommends is evil, it is nothing more than a Suggests which won't take
"No" for an answer.

craig

--
craig sanders