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Re: merging dselect bugs resulting from "dpkg -iGROEB"



Florent Rougon writes ("Re: merging dselect bugs resulting from "dpkg -iGROEB""):
> OK, I stand corrected. I would find it a bit weird, though, that someone
> starts working again on access methods other than APT, because that
> would sound to me as duplicating work.

apt is not the right answer to the problem, in my opinion, and it
would be better to throw it away and start again.  I had this opinion
before even ever trying apt (based on reports of its behaviour, etc.)
and I have to say that the experience of having tried it in various
contexts, and more recently the experience of reading and modifying
its code, haven't changed my mind.

One of the worst things about apt is that it makes it possible to
install and upgrade even when packages' dependencies are broken and
forbid the operations in question.  I have had to argue with
maintainers in bug reports, when the maintainer says `obviously the
dependencies must be fine because apt doesn't mind'; some maintainers
even seemed unaware that apt (a) calls dpkg to do all the work and
(b) sometimes instructs dpkg to override dependencies (which I think
is quite treacherous of it).

I know this opinion isn't widely held and of course I don't expect to
convince anyone else with mere bluster :-).

Ian.



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