Re: dummy packages and "Replaces:" field

[Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net>]

On 23-Jun-05, 08:03 (CDT), Margarita Manterola <margamanterola@gmail.com> wrote: 
> The one I can think of is honouring the "Replaces:" field, meaning
> that when a package states that it replaces another one, apt,
> aptitude, dselect, and all the others would  install it to replace of
> the old one.

That is not what "Replaces:" means, and changing dpkg to do what you
want would break a lot of existing packages that are NOT mis-using it.
See the dpkg docs for what "Replaces:" actually does.

> Is there a better solution to this?

I think that there have been proposals for a new header that
accomplishes what you want, but it's never gone anywhere. I suspect that
the effort has not been viewed as worthwhile, given that there's no new
functionality. Dummy packages work, and have the advantage that it's
very clear what is going on.

Steve


-- 
Steve Greenland
    The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
    system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the
    world.       -- seen on the net