[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#463039: why does octave3.0 provide: octave2.9?

[Steve Langasek <vorlon@debian.org>]

Package: octave3.0
Version: 3.0.0-1
Severity: serious
User: ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com
Usertags: origin-ubuntu

Hi,

The octave3.0 package in unstable has the following provides line:

  Provides: octave, octave2.9

I don't see any possible way that this can be correct.  Either octave3.0 is
100% compatible with octave2.9, and the source/binary package name should
*not* have been changed for the new upstream version; or it is not 100%
compatible, and should not have any such Provides since it may cause
octave2.9 reverse-dependencies to install octave3.0 instead of the real
octave2.9 and then fail to work.

In practice, most of the reverse-depends of octave2.9 have versioned
dependencies on octave2.9, so most of these will refuse to accept octave3.0
as a replacement.  And octave3.0 also *conflicts* with octave2.9, so they're
not exactly co-installable either.  Something looks very wrong here.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek@ubuntu.com                                     vorlon@debian.org