Re: Should the X packages pre-depend on awk?

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org> writes:

> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:30:44PM +0200, Manuel Prinz wrote:
>
>> Am Donnerstag, den 31.07.2008, 09:27 +0000 schrieb Jörg Sommer:
>> > recently, I've installed a new system with a minimal configuration. Then
>> > I've imported my old package selection with dpkg --set-selections and run
>> > apt-get dselect-upgrade. This replaced the mawk package by the gawk
>> > package and installed some X package at the same time.
>> > [...]
>> > But x11-common and many other X packages use awk in their maintainer
>> > scripts. [...]
>> > So, must these packages preâ??depend on awk?
>
>> No. They can rely on awk to be installed. awk is a dependency of package
>> base-files, which is essential. By that, awk is always installed and
>> x11-common can use awk in the maintainer scripts without the need to
>> declare a dependency.
>
> The dpkg upgrade log that Jörg showed clearly indicates that this is not the
> case; mawk was removed, other packages were installed, and then gawk was
> installed.

I think this is a misbehaviour in apt. It could first install gawk and
only then remove mawk. That way base-files would not have to be
broken/unconfigured inbetween.

It is not a bug as apt may do it this way. It just isn't the best
solution. I think apt should be more conservative when possible.

MfG
        Goswin