On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 10:24:29AM -0300, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> >> If a conflicting package is installed on the system you can not install
> >> the metapackage and the package management program (aptitude, synaptic,
> >> ...) will warn you about this and ask for advise.
> >
> > Do you mean we could partly remove dependencies of a meta-package by
> > putting it in a broken status?
>
> So now we're talking about metapackages ... OK. We've kind of flipped
> topics, then, from talking about wrong dependencies that bloat a package
> vs. dependencies that are inconvenient in a metapackage that bloat our
> CD image. Let's make sure we're on the same page. As for stating a
> conflicts to negate recommends from a metapackage, I think this may
> cause more problems than it solves, as a recommends is "soft" (you can
> remove a package that is recommended without breaking anything) but
> conflicts are "hard" (once you conflict with a package you can never
> install it without removing the conflicting package!) So we sacrifice
> flexibility. Pinning doesn't have this problem, if done properly, as it
> can give us precisely the amount of flexibility we want, no more and no
> less.
At least I have understood Jean-Michel in that way that we do not have a
conflict of a package competing with a recommends inside a metapackage
but rather we want to put a Conflict *inside* the metapackage to ensure
that this package is not installed at the same time as the metapackage
on one system (put on one install medium together with the metapackage).
You can for instance put a conflict to
- random game featuring violence we would not tolerate for small
children (I do not discuss whether this should be done or not just
mentioning one possible use case)
- really large data file which can be used as alternative to one
smaller sized package and both alternatives are enabled by the
package using the data but we explicitely want the small package
I'd regard these as possible use case for a Conflicts inside a
metapackage.
Kind regards
Andreas.
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