Re: test for package dependencies without installing

[Paul Yeatman <pyeatman@ucsd.edu>]

->>In response to your message<<-
  --received from Chris Burkhardt--
>
> Paul Yeatman wrote:
> [...]
> >> There is a note in the man page about putting the --no-act flag before the action:
> >>
> >> $ sudo dpkg --no-act -i texlive-base_2007.dfsg.1-2_all.deb
> >>
> >> Does that make it behave as expected?
> > 
> > I wish but sadly no:
> > 
> > $ sudo dpkg --no-act -i texlive-base_2007.dfsg.1-2_all.deb
> > Selecting previously deselected package texlive-base.
> > (Reading database ... 150341 files and directories currently installed.)
> > Unpacking texlive-base (from texlive-base_2007.dfsg.1-2_all.deb) ...
> > pyeatman@pyeatman:~$ 
> > 
> > ...but I didn't catch that so thanks for pointing out!
> 
> Hmm. Take a look at this bug (especially message #19):
> <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=128560>
> 
> I guess a workaround for your script is to parse the 'Depends:' line from
> dpkg -I and test if each of those packages are installed.
> 
> - Chris B

Yes, I had considered this idea myself but, given that apt-get,
aptitude, dpkg, etc. already perform this action, I wanted to tap into
this and not reinvent the wheel.  This doesn't seem possible at the
time, however.

Thanks again for the feedback and for pointing out the bug!
Paul