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Package: linux-headers-amd64
Version: 6.16.8-1
Severity: wishlist
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Hash: SHA512
In debian, linux-headers-generic is a virtual package
that is provided by linux-headers-$ARCH.
For reasons, i need to specify a dependency on installed kernel headers
version in a package. I was hoping to do:
```
Depends: linux-headers-generic (>= 6.16)
```
... but that doesn't actually work
because the per-arch packages don't specify which version of
linux-headers-generic they provide, so i have to instead do:
```
Depends: linux-headers-amd64 (>= 6.16) [amd64],
linux-headers-arm64 (>= 6.16) [ard64],
<...>
```
This seems suboptimal. It would be ideal if they could annotate the
version they provide:
```
Provides: linux-headers-generic = (6.12.38-1)
```
Roman.
- -- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (1, 'experimental-debug'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.16.8+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/32 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages linux-headers-amd64 depends on:
ii linux-headers-6.16.8+deb14-amd64 6.16.8-1
linux-headers-amd64 recommends no packages.
linux-headers-amd64 suggests no packages.
- -- no debconf information
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--- Begin Message ---
On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 02:30:58AM +0300, Roman Lebedev wrote:
> > Please explain what you are trying to do. There is no real way to
> > depend on Linux headers and expect it to get something working.
> In case of things such as dkms modules, it's the version of kernel headers,
> and that is precisely what i was hoping to codify,
> only to discover that i then must manually enumerate
> each per-arch headers package.
This is not possible.
Those are only meta-packages. It just depends on the real packages and
users will have multiple versions installed of those at the same time.
So even a dependency on >= 6.12 does not mean a 6.1 can not show up.
There are other variants of the kernel or no generic one at all. So you
install headers of kernel the user does not want or just fail
completely.
So just don't do that. I'm also closing this here.
Bastian
--
Landru! Guide us!
-- A Beta 3-oid, "The Return of the Archons", stardate 3157.4
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