On Tue, Mar 02, 2004 at 08:28:38PM +0100, Andreas Barth wrote:
> * Anthony Towns (aj@azure.humbug.org.au) [040302 18:40]:
> > On Tue, Mar 02, 2004 at 03:36:22PM +0100, Marc Haber wrote:
> > > And the way we
> > > handle libraries is indeed broken as well, because we require them to
> > > be manually uninstalled. If they could be priority optional, aptitude
> > > could automagically remove them with the packages that need them.
> > Why can't it do that with it at the current priority? There's no
> > more reason to keep unavailable, unneeded >=standard libraries than
> > <=optional ones.
> I don't know if you've every used a tool like dselect or aptitude.
Considering I've sent patches in for dselect, the odds are pretty good that
I've used it, don't you think?
> But
> if you had, you might have noticed that packages of certain priorities
> are automatically added to the to-be-installed packages, even if there
> is no explicit dependency on them.
Indeed. This is the case for *available* >=standard packages. Ones that
are obsolete won't get automatically reselected after being uninstalled.
In fact, ones that aren't both new and >=standard won't get automatically
selected anyway.
> So, for example, if exim4-config is
> important, then it is always installed, except if some package
> conflicts with it.
That's not the case in dselect. If it's the case in aptitude, then that's a
bug in aptitude.
> And, Anthony, please let me repeat my question: Why do we _need_ the
> current policy statemnt?
Because it allows us to easily say "just install all of standard" and
be confident we'll have a complete and consistent system. I realise you
don't value this at all, so I don't see much point about discussing it
further.
> Is there any reason for it, beside that you
> dislike exim4, the way it is packaged or its maintainers?
The problem with the proposal is that it doesn't solve exim4's problem. If
the dependencies are changed in the way that's desired, changing from
exim4 to postfix will result in the exact same bad situation.
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.
Linux.conf.au 2004 -- Because we could.
http://conf.linux.org.au/ -- Jan 12-17, 2004
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature