perl dependancy problem

[Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>]

I have a package (debconf) that uses lib.pm. This is in perl-5.00[54]. It
depends on perl5. I just installed a fresh unstable system, using the
defaults. perl-5.004-base and perl-5.004 were installed, as was
perl-5.005-base. perl-5.005 itself was not installed. perl -v says perl
5.005 is being used as the "perl" command. When debconf was installed,
nothing in the dependancies pulled in perl-5.005. So the program fails.

What am I supposed to do? I could make debconf depend on perl-5.005, but it
really works with any version of perl 5. Also, if only perl-5.004-base,
perl-5.005, and perl-5.005-base were installed, and the alternatives pointed
/usr/bin/perl to perl 5.004, then it would still fail! I realize that would
require manual intervention to change the alternattives priorities, but it
still worries me.

It seems the only completly safe thing to do is depend on perl-5.005 and
explicitly use /usr/bin/perl-5.005. I hate being forced to do that, with a
package that will work with any perl 5.

-- 
see shy jo