Re: trying to overwrite ..., which is also in package ...

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

Vincent Danjean <vdanjean.ml@free.fr> writes:

> Olivier Berger wrote:
>> Le mercredi 06 août 2008 à 08:14 +0800, jidanni@jidanni.org a écrit :
>>> Say, couldn't there be some automatic checks so we users don't encounter
>>> # apt-get dist-upgrade
>>> ERR: trying to overwrite `some file, which is also in package other_package
>>>
>>
>> Did you check :
>> http://edos.debian.net/missing-conflicts/ ?
>>
>> It is supposed to do exactly what you're requesting, IMHO.
>
> Looking at the description (http://edos.debian.net/missing-conflicts/doc.html)
> I'm not sure weather these tests take into account upgrades.
>   I mean that, most of the times I see this bug, it comes from a file that
> is moved from package oldA to package newB when a new version is published.
> Maintainer correctly sets 'Conflicts' (so, for example, oldA cannot be installed
> together with newB) but forgot to sets 'Replaces'. So, upgrading from
> (oldA, oldB) to (newA, newB) can trigger the bug (depending on the order of
> unpacking chosen by apt/dpkg).

Which is actualy wrong.

The Conflicts was needed so one could not install oldA when newB is
already installed because dpkg did not remember the Replaces line of
newB.

But dpkg has been fixed to honor Replaces of installed packages when
updating the replaced package. The replaced files in oldA will be
silently dropped now and no longer give an overwrite error.

So maintainers should only set "Replaces: A (<< old version)" without
Conflicts.

MfG
        Goswin