Re: [RFC] Changing APT to pre-depend on ${shlibs:Depends}

[Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org>]

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 02:53:26PM +0200, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I hereby request comments on changing APT to pre-depend on
> ${shlibs:Depends}. The reason is simple:
> 
>         When we upload a new version of APT, depending on a newer
>         library version (due to new symbols, whatever), and APT gets
>         unpacked before the library, the system's ability to upgrade is
>         broken, unless you fix it manually via calls to dpkg.
>         
> APT is fairly low in the dependency chain, and the dependencies affected
> are libgcc1 and libstdc++6 (in addition to dpkg's pre-depends). As those
> are installed on most systems anyway, pre-depending on them should not
> introduce many problems.
[..]

Thanks for brining this up. I don't have a strong opinion either
way. As David pointed out already apt internally promotes itself to
"important" (rightfully so ;) and that in turn causes the ordering
code to mark it and its dependencies for immediate configuration. So
for all practical purposes inside apt its already a
pre-depends. Making this explicit will not hurt but also not gain much
(except for the dpkg -i case). 

Cheers,
 Michael