Re: Bits from the experimental autobuilder team (or: For Those Who Care About Experimental...)

[Ken Bloom <kbloom@gmail.com>]

Frank Küster <frank@debian.org> wrote:
> Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
> 
>> I'm thinking more of extending the capabilities of apt itself for 2
>> cases:
>>
>> 1)
>> apt-get install foo (>= 1.2-3)
>> or
>> apt-get install foo>=1.2-3
>>
>> Sort the known versions of foo according to pin and version like now
>> but then, instead of picking the top one, pick the first one
>> fullfilling the version requirement. This could be foo=2.0-5.
> 
> That sounds sensible.
> 
>> 2)
>>
>> apt-get install foo
>>
>> and foo Depends: bar (>= 1.2-3)
>>
>> Install bar >= 1.2-3 even if it is not the top candidate. This should
>> be just like 
>>
>> apt-get install foo bar (>= 1.2-3)
> 
> Without further precautions, this would make life harder for people who
> currently use pinning.  If a package is broken, because it depends on
> stuff only in experimental, it would just install the experimental
> version, but I'd rather have a warning here.
> 
> Regards, Frank

Install the necessary version even if it's not the top choice, but
only if the priority is higher than a given threshold (say 50).

Then normal users get experimental pinned at 1 as it is now, but the
experimental autobuilders get experimental pinned at 51 using
/etc/apt/preferences.

--Ken Bloom

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