Bug#82310: Provides: java-servlet-engine
From my mail to debian-java
(http://lists.debian.org/debian-java/2003/debian-java-200307/msg00054.html):
I don't think it makes sense. Sure, packages that contain webapps can
depend on "java-servlet-engine" and put their webapp in
/usr/share/java/webapps. But how do they tell any arbitrary servlet
engine that provides the virtual package to activate this webapp?
So you gain nothing from this. It doesn't even make sense to package a
webapp if it just contains a single .war file and depends on
java-servlet-engine. You can as well copy the .war file to
/usr/share/java/webapps (or the webapps directory of your favourite
servlet engine).
If you really want to automatically setup your webapp from a Debian
package, you need to depend on one or more specific servlet engines and
tell them to active your webapp in your postinst.
Another solution could be that all servlet engines register themselves
somehow and then a script could handle webapps. But currently there are
no packaged webapps that could depend on java-servlet-engine and such a
script does not exist.
I'm not against the virtual package, I just think we don't gain anything.
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