Bug#212620: dpkg: [DEP-ENGINE] semantics of Conflicts+Replaces are unknown/undocumented/wrong

[Josip Rodin <joy@srce.hr>]

On Wed, Sep 24, 2003 at 11:22:28PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > I'd recommend reading Policy Manual section 7.5 
> > "Overwriting files and replacing packages - Replaces" first.
> 
> The case I'm concerned about is section 7.5.2.  It would be no less
> correct for libutahglx1, once it is maintained again, to Conflict with
> and Replace xlibmesa-gl, so given this symmetric relationship, I'm not
> sure how this "allows the packaging system to resolve which package
> should be removed when there is a conflict."

If libutahglx1 gets maintained and uploaded again, and a user tells dpkg to
--install the new libutahglx1, it will see that it conflicts+replaces
xlibmesa-gl, remove xlibmesa-gl and proceed to install the new libutahglx1.
dpkg doesn't pay attention to reverse dependencies (like when you downgrade
a libfoo1 without downgrading libfoo1-dev with a versioned dependency on
the newer one). Is this the answer you were looking for or did I miss the
point again?

-- 
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