dpkg bugs?
Hi,
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?
I'm going to get a few others to run the sniffer program to see if anymore
abnormalities turn up.
Jason
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