Bug#369437: apt-get shouldn't say that A replaces B while A depends on B

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org> writes:

> severity 369437 minor
> retitle 369437 "However the following packages replace it" is simple-minded
> thanks
>
> On Mon, May 29, 2006 at 08:49:32PM +0200, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
>> Package: apt
>> Version: 0.6.44.1
>> Severity: normal
>> 
>> apt-get gives a confusing message:
>> 
>> ay:~> sudo apt-get install -t unstable sun-java5-bin
>> Password:
>> Reading package lists... Done
>> Building dependency tree... Done
>> Package sun-java5-bin is not available, but is referred to by another package.
>> This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
>> is only available from another source
>> However the following packages replace it:
>>   sun-java5-jre
>> E: Package sun-java5-bin has no installation candidate
>> 
>> It shouldn't say that sun-java5-jre replaces sun-java5-bin because
>> the user needs sun-java5-bin anyway (indeed sun-java5-jre depends
>> on sun-java5-bin).
>
> This feature looks at the Replaces field to guess that another package might
> be meant to supersede the one that the user is looking for.  It should be
> worded less authoritatively since this is at best a hint where to look for a
> solution.

The Replaces field has 2 meanings:

1) just replaces: some files will be overwritte
2) replaces + conflicts: the package is replaced / superseeded

shouldn't apt-get only give this message on the second case? That
should give a more accurate help.

MfG
        Goswin