How things get (into|screwed up) in testing

[Nick Phillips <nwp@lemon-computing.com>]

I've just been doing an upgrade from potato to woody.

It's striking how many dependency problems are caused by multi-binary packages.

For example, libdb2 and libdb2-util, although built from the same source
package, have different and mutually incompatible versions in woody.

The same is true of gnome-control-center & libcapplet, apt & apt-utils,
and many others.

Would it not be a good idea to modify the unstable->testing system so that
either *all* packages built from a source package get in, or none do?

I would suggest that the priority of the most important binary package built
from any particular source package be used to determine when the packages are
considered.

This would make life *much* easier for people tracking testing. This would
in turn probably mean that more people would track testing, and that more
bugs would be found more quickly. Now that's got to be a good thing - hasn't
it? ;)


Cheers,



Nick

-- 
Nick Phillips -- nwp@lemon-computing.com
Avoid reality at all costs.