Re: The future (or non-future) of ia32-libs
"Adam D. Barratt" <adam@adam-barratt.org.uk> writes:
> On 22.06.2012 15:31, Roger Leigh wrote:
>> On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 09:32:15PM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
>>> On 06/22/2012 05:34 PM, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>>> > Step 1: upgrade/dist-upgrade with ia32-libs (wine, ...) held back
>>> > Step 2: dpkg --add-architecture i386 && apt-get update
>>> > Step 3: dist-upgrade (ia32-libs, wine, ... is now installable)
> [...]
>>> I know we have release notes, but some don't know about them or
>>> would
>>> simply not read them. A debconf message seem really appropriate IMO.
>>
>> Could we not introduce the concept of an "upgrade script" into
>> apt-get which could be downloaded when you run "apt-get update" and
>> then run during a dist-upgrade? This could handle automation of
>> any "housekeeping" during the upgrade which would otherwise require
>> manual work detailed in the release notes.
>
> As a theoretical future enhancement, possibly. That won't help for
> squeeze to wheezy upgrades though, as squeeze's apt would need to
> include support for it.
>
> Regards,
>
> Adam
I actualy have an idea for this special case that should be quick to
implement and could help many users.
Packages with cross architecture dependencies set "X-Needs-Architecture:
<arch>[, ...]" in debian/control. Apt-get and aptitude (and maybe dpkg)
can then be patched to give a helpfull error message if the user tries
to install the package without multiarch. They can also hold back the
package until multiarch is enabled (as opposed to suggesting to remove
them as first choice) and even suggest enabling multiarch (wheezy
versions only).
The helpfull error messages and holding back packages would have to be
ported to stable apt/aptitude to be any use for upgrades. And only
people updating to the latest stable point release would benefit from
it.
In the long run though it would be helpfull for everyone. Trying to
install an armel cross compiler on amd64 could automatically detect that
this would require activating armel and suggest to do that now. And so
on. Post wheezy detecting this case could be extended to "Depends:
libfoo:arch".
MfG
Goswin
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