Bug#128868: debian-policy: Depends semantics unclear re circular depends

[Julian Gilbey <J.D.Gilbey@qmul.ac.uk>]

On Sat, Jan 12, 2002 at 07:08:21PM +1100, Peter Moulder wrote:
>  From section 7.2 `Binary Dependencies' of debian-policy:
> 
> #    `Depends'
> #         This declares an absolute dependency.  A package will not be
> #         configured unless all of the packages listed in its `Depends'
> #         field have been correctly configured.
> 
> Suppose that package A Depends on B, and package B Depends on A.
> 
> My reading of the above policy excerpt is that is that circular
> dependencies are not allowed, since it would be impossible to configure
> either A or B without first configuring the other.[*1]
> 
> Whereas, in fact, a number of dependency cycles do occur in Debian; a

According to a recent post by Wichert to -devel, a cyclic dependency
is OK, but all of the packages in the cycle have to be configured in
the same dpkg invocation.

   Julian

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     Julian Gilbey, Dept of Maths,             Debian GNU/Linux Developer
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