On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 05:10:28PM +0100, Johannes Schauer wrote: > I was just able to reproduce the problem spotted in #770301. Apt allows > to install libbabl-dev for two different architectures and only errors Well, I disagree, but I will follow the (other) thread and bend to the will of Multi-Arch inventors if they have a different take on this… (what follows is my take, which felt so "intuitive/natural" that I realize only now that the spec isn't specifying any of this…) libbabl-dev:i386 is not providing the same thing as libbabl-dev:amd64, think: architecture specific header for example, so what you suggest in the title would be breaking existing dependencies. If you want this behaviour (which is probably more common than this -dev case here) like for e.g. mail-transport-agent, just flag the package as M-A: foreign. Also as this -dev package is marked as M-A: same it should be possible to co-install it with its other architecture siblings. After all, what is the point of it being flagged M-A: same otherwise? > out because dpkg (correctly) detects the conflict introduced by the > Provides field. APT (correctly) detects the conflict introduced by the Provides field as a self-conflict and hence ignores it here. You can notice this with an (imaginative) libbabl-alt-dev:i386 package which isn't installable at the same time as libbabl-dev:amd64 as this is a "real" conflict (even if it is crossing architecture boundaries). Best regards David Kalnischkies
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