architecture-specific dependencies on virtual packages

[David Kalnischkies <kalnischkies@gmail.com>]

Hi,

while playing around with the APT code regarding architecture-specific
dependencies I stumbled over the handling of Provides in that context:

Package: pkga
Status: install ok installed
Architecture: i386
Provides: foo

Package pkgb
Architecture: amd64
Conflicts: foo:amd64


The result with dpkg (1.16.7):
dpkg: regarding .../pool/pkgb_1_amd64.deb containing pkgb:
 pkgb conflicts with foo:amd64
  pkga provides foo and is present and installed.


Even more interesting, if I change this conflict to a depends dpkg happily
installs the package and dpkg --audit gives no indication that a dependency
is unsatisfied (same problem with depends if no architecture is specified).

Shouldn't provides be limited by the architecture their provider can work on?
Or did I miss something here?


Best regards

David Kalnischkies