Re: dpkg bugs?

["Scott K. Ellis" <storm@gate.net>]

On Sun, 28 Sep 1997, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:

> I've been debugging some deity code (depends analysis), and have come
> across the rather inexplicable case that I have packages installed that
> cannot be installed - ie currently their dependancies are not met.
> 
> The list for my machine is:
>    fvwm - Depends on elf-x11r6lib but this is not installed or provided
>    mfbin - Same as fvwm
>    libreadline2-dev - Depends line says:
>           libreadline2 (= 2.1-2), libc5 (>= 5.4.0-0), ncurses3.0 
>          but I have libreadline2 2.1-5 installed!
> 
> AFAIK None of these should exist in an installed system, I can't think of
> how dpkg could allow this, unless there is a bug. If I were to remove
> these packages I should not be able to re-install them (with the possible
> exception of libreadline2)
> 
> The fvwm problem would suggest that it doesn't check for reverse virtual
> package depends when removing a package. Ie the new xlib6 does not provide
> elf-x11r6lib, I should not have been able to upgrade to it without
> removing mfbin and fvwm
> 
> The libreadline problem suggests that dpkg does not properly parse the
> single = (shouldn't it be == ?)
> 
> Should I file a bug report (against dpkg, because these item are in active
> use), or some someone see any obvious reason why this can exist? Should
> my depends code allow any of these to exist?

That particular bug (dpkg not checking dependancys on package upgrades)
has been reported as a bug several times already.  Dselect does the proper
nag thing, but if you're just using dpkg you won't see it.  And you could
reinstall them, but you'd have to use --force-depends.

-- 
       Scott K. Ellis        |        The reason angels can fly is that
       storm@gate.net        |         they take themselves so lightly.
                             |                -- G.K. Chesterson