Control: tags -1 moreinfo
On Sun, 10 Jun 2018 02:15:51 +0100 Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>
wrote:
> > Perhaps a better location would be the upgrading chapter of the release
> > notes? [1]
> >
> > That includes various things that one can do to clean up your system
> > after the upgrade; removing transitional packages would seem like a good
> > thing to do at that point.
> >
> > [1] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html#for-next
>
> That would also be a good place.
I wonder what is missing there from the perspective of this bug. The
section about dummy packages exists since before 2009 and currently reads:
'''
<title>Dummy packages</title>
<para>
Some packages from &oldreleasename; have been split into several
packages in &releasename;, often to improve system maintainability. To
ease the upgrade path in such cases, &releasename; often provides
<quote>dummy</quote> packages: empty packages that have the same name as
the old package in &oldreleasename; with dependencies that cause the new
packages to be installed. These <quote>dummy</quote> packages are
considered redundant after the upgrade and can be safely removed.
</para>
<para>
Most (but not all) dummy packages' descriptions indicate their
purpose. Package descriptions for dummy packages are not uniform,
however, so you might also find <command>deborphan</command> with the
<literal>--guess-<replaceable>*</replaceable></literal> options (e.g.
<literal>--guess-dummy</literal>) useful to detect them in your system.
Note that some dummy packages are not intended to be removed after an
upgrade but are, instead, used to keep track of the current available
version of a program over time.
</para>
</section>
'''
Suggestions on how to improve that text are welcome.
Paul
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