Re: Ambiguous build-dependencies
On Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 06:50:55PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> I've been working on getting my automatic package tester working.
> It's currently running but I've redirected its automatic bug
> submission emails to me, while I make sure that the bugs it reports
> are correct.
>
> One common problem that it finds is ambiguously specified
> Build-Depends. For example:
>
> lenny:~# apt-get build-dep acpi
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Package automaken is a virtual package provided by:
> automake1.9 1.9.6+nogfdl-3
> automake1.8 1.8.5+nogfdl-2
> automake1.7 1.7.9-9
> automake 1:1.10+nogfdl-1
> You should explicitly select one to install.
> E: Package automaken has no installation candidate
> E: Failed to satisfy Build-Depends dependency for acpi: automaken
> lenny:~#
>
> The buildds use a different algorithm which doesn't choke in this
> case, although I don't know how they decide what to use.
If my memory is any good, it picks the first (last) of those it finds in the
Packages file. It's sometimes a little unpredictable.
> Is this a bug in the package(s); or is it a bug in apt ? After all if
> it really doesn't matter which version is installed and the resulting
> binaries will be correct, then any version will do.
To work properly with sbuild, packages should be build depending on
"automake | automaken", as in they should first list a real package,
then the virtual package. sbuild will only consider the first
of the alternatives.
Kurt
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