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Re: Getting rid of circular dependencies, stage 5



Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> writes:

> Josselin Mouette wrote:
>> Le dimanche 23 juillet 2006 à 10:55 -0400, Joey Hess a écrit :
>> > > Furthermore, there is no real justification for the circular dependency
>> > > in debconf. Why don't you just fix it?
>> > 
>> > <20060110031558.GB2662@kitenet.net>
>> > <20060113210004.GD15313@kitenet.net>

<20060113210004.GD15313@kitenet.net>:
> Henning Glawe wrote:
> > To illustrate the scenario:
> > - Package A depends on package B, which in turn depends on A
> >   0) User calls 'apt-get install <long-list-of-packages1> A B
> >      <long-list-of-packages2>':
> >   1) apt splits the whole list into smaller parts after sorting by dependency
> >      where, in case this bug occurs:
> >        <part1>="<long-list-of-packages3> A"
> >        <part2>="B <long-list-of-packages4>"
> >   2) apt calls 'dpkg --unpack' for each element of <part1> and <part2>
> >      == so far no problem ==
> >   3) apt calls 'dpkg --configure <part1>' and 'dpkg --configure <part2>'
> >      where the first step already fails, because B is not in
> >      <part1>, but A depends on B
> >      == complete failure, user has to recover manually: 
>
> debconf will not break in this situation
>
> (BTW, it's not formally essential, but it needs to have the same
> qualities as essential packages, and does.)

Debconf might not break in that situation but the system does. dpkg
still refuses to install the package without depends and
apt/aptitude/whatever fails. The user has to fix things up.
 
>> This doesn't answer the question. Let me rephrase it another way. If
>> someone provides a patch to remove that circular dependency, will you
>> apply it?
>
> Only if it managed to comprehend why the circular dependency is
> currently there and somehow address the issues it solves.

Then please enlighten us. There is little point of us stumbling in the
dark when you already have a perfectly good explanation why we will
fail.

MfG
        Goswin



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