Bug#255593: lintian: should check build-depends(-indep) for virtual packages without a real package too
On Mon, Jun 21, 2004 at 11:30:26PM +0200, Steinar H. Gunderson wrote:
> Package: lintian
> Version: 1.23.0
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
>
> As of 1.23.0, lintian correctly catches errors of the form:
>
> Depends: mail-transport-agent
>
> (This is an error since mail-transport-agent is a virtual package, it
> should be "exim | mail-transport-agent".) The included patch extends
> this to also checking Build-Depends: and Build-Depends-Indep:.
Is this really an error? If it's OK for absolutely any provider to be
installed, then fine. If some particular provider is better, why not
build-depend on it explicitly rather than alternate?
The Depends: error is there because listing the real alternative
apparently makes some package management front-ends behave better, but
this doesn't apply to build-dependencies.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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