Re: Bug#46308: marked as done (apt: vague message about conflicts/depends)
On Thu, Sep 30, 1999 at 02:39:49PM -0600, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> But you are not operating on wmaker! You asked APT to install wmsound and
> it told you it couldn't because it could not find a compatible version of
> wmaker - plain, simple and direct. dpkg tells you that it cannot install
> wmsound because wmaker prevents it, but that doesn't tell you that there
> is no newer version of wmaker that can solve the problem.
>
> APT always presents the problem viewpoint from the packages that you are
> manipulating, not from the packages that will be effected by the
> installation.
>
> What it says, is that under ideal conditions with all problems resolved to
> their fullest extent you cannot install the set of packages because they
> need XXXX things to be satisified. In this case wmsounds needs wmaker
> which for some unmentioned reason cannot be installed. The unmentioned
> reason could be very complicated [a huge conflicts/depends loop, missing
> versions, whatever] or very simple [a direct conflicts].
>
> It is not a lie, your modification makes it a lie. wmsound doesn't cause a
> conflict it just happens to have one in its relationship to wmaker. The
> Depends/Conflicts form a loop, you can present the problem from any point
> in the loop.
I understand that all what you are saying is correct - however, a user
will not be seeing the problem from your/APT's perspective - (s)he will
want the complete picture, explained in a human way (i.e. nonambigous
and clear sentences).
Otherwise, the user will not understand the message APT is trying to
tell him/her, and not know how to deal with the situation.
Is there any way for APT to try to extract and display the information dpkg
would give when it encounters this kind of situation? Or any other way to
get a more global overview the problem from an apt-get run?
--
enJoy -*/\*- don't even try to pronounce my first name
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