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Re: What are the dangers of using packages from both stable and testing?



On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 15:59:52 -0400
Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> wrote:
>
> Chris Metzler wrote:
> > But that's the best way it can play out.  The worst way -- which is
> > thankfully uncommon, but can and does happen -- is if Depends or
> > Conflicts don't catch the problem.  An example: package A in stable
> > requires libfoo version 2.4 or greater; user installs package B, which
> > requires libfoo version 3.1, and so that gets brought along, replacing
> > v2.4; package A isn't marked for removal because 3.1 > 2.0; but
> > software compiled against libfoo v2.4 chokes with libfoo v3.1, and so
> > the binaries in package A are now broken).  The package manager for
> > libfoo can't set Conflicts: for *everything* compiled against earlier
> > versions of libfoo because libfoo is just too commonly used.  And if
> > this happens with something like glibc, you're hosed.
> 
> This scenario is always a bug in libfoo for breaking backwards
> compatability without changing its soname, and Debian has plenty of
> standard ways to deal with it that don't involve conflicting with lots
> of packages. If you see something like this, file a bug report.

Yeah.  It still happens, though, viz. getting bit by #241360.

-c

-- 
Chris Metzler			cmetzler@speakeasy.snip-me.net
		(remove "snip-me." to email)

"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I
have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear

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