On Tue, Oct 15, 2002 at 10:28:30AM +1000, Daniel Stone wrote: > On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 05:50:26PM -0600, Brother Joel Baker preached da werd, yo: > > However, as read, this would make little or not sense as to why one cannot > > (or even should not) use libc-dev instead of libc*-dev unless you need a > > versioned dependancy - since all libc*-dev should Provide: libc-dev, and > > there should be exactly one that applies to any given arch, there is no > > "preference" that would make any sense for all arches. > > Because, when you have multiple packages providing libc-dev, apt stops > and says "Shit! Which one should I install?". Your build thus fails. Er. That's exactly what it SHOULD do, in this particular case. Installing libc6-dev on, say, Hurd or NetBSD, would be a Bad Idea (tm). While I accept that the general case does not have these properties, I assert that this sort of case is exactly why Policy 7.4 is a 'should' and not a 'must'. In the cases where there should be *exactly one* package which provides this, and more importantly, in which there is *not* a sane default, a default should not be specified. Or are you saying that APT fails to invoke the same branch of 'which one should I install' that it must use if the real package does not exist on that platform? If so, can someone explain to me why *this* would be the case? > > And that's a "Warning", which would match the 'should' clause in 7.4, which > > all makes sense - until you throw in Branden's claim that this utterly > > breaks installation. What I'm asking is why, if Policy 7.4 says 'should' > > and if there is no rational default for selecting a 'real' version in the > > presence of more than one (which should never happen in the first place, in > > this particular instance), installation breaks. > > Considering you're confusing buildd's, you *REALLY* *should* do this. See above. In *this case* (as opposed to the general one), I can't see why they should ever be confused. -- *************************************************************************** Joel Baker System Administrator - lightbearer.com lucifer@lightbearer.com http://users.lightbearer.com/lucifer/
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