Bug#100449: debian/control in tetex-bin

["C.M. Connelly" <cmc@debian.org>]

Eric,

In order to use teTeX on Debian, you need, at a minimum, the
following packages installed:

   tetex-bin
   tetex-base
   libkpathsea3

You can also install tetex-doc and tetex-extra, to get
documentation and nonrequired (mostly LaTeX) packages.

If you're using apt-get to do package installation and removal,
typing (as root)

   gnulinux# apt-get install tetex-bin

should download and install libkpathsea3 and tetex-base
automatically.  If you don't already have some of the other
packages listed in the Depends line installed, the misisng
packages will also be downloaded and installed.

Unless you're installing task-tex, which will install a number of
additional packages you will need to install tetex-doc and
tetex-extra yourself, by typing

   gnulinux# apt-get install tetex-doc tetex-extra

(task-tex installs bibindex, bibtool, dvidvi, lacheck, mpage,
pstoedit, psutils, tetex-base, tetex-bin, tetex-doc, tetex-extra,
untex, xfig, latex2html, src2tex, dviutils, latex2rtf,
hyphen-show, bibview, and texdoctk, in addition to any
dependencies these individual packages may have.  It's the best
way to get started with TeX.)


In other words, if you're using the standard interface to the
Debian package-management system, you don't need to worry about
downloading and installing dependencies.  That said, dpkg should
complain if you try to install a package without having packages
it depends on installed (unless you're installing those packages
with the same command line).


The Replaces field, as Adrian said, is used by the
package-management system to allow one package to replace some
files contained in other packages, or to indicate to the system
what packages should be removed if one package lists another
package in a Conflict line in its control file.  See Section 7.5
in the Policy Manual (install the debian-policy package or look at
<http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-relationships.html#s-replaces>)
for more information.

In the case of tetex-bin and tetex-base, the files that tetex-bin
``replaces'' are actually directories that are included in both
packages.  Because packages cannot guarantee that all of the
directories they may need will be provided, each package must
provide the directories it needs.

It may well be the case that there is no need for a Replaces:
tetex-base line in the current tetex-bin package with the current
tetex-base package, as there are no longer any overlapping files.
Leaving the line, however, is harmless.


I hope that my message, and the Debian Policy Manual, help you
understand what the control-file fields mean.

   CMC

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 Behind the counter a boy with a shaven head stared vacantly into space, 
 a dozen spikes of microsoft protruding from the socket behind his ear.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
   C.M. Connelly               cmc@debian.org                   SHC, DS
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