Package: dpkg
Version: 1.13.24
Severity: normal
This is a debian policy bug report. I am filing against dpkg since it
is the package that most directly implements that policy.
I think the debian packaging system needs to be able to record certain
types of conflicts that should not prevent installing conflicting packages
but would warn the user before installing.
For example, dist-upgrade from stable to unstable left me with a system
that had linux-image-2.6.16-1-686 and gcc-4.1, a combination that prevents
the user from compiling and installing kernel modules (which was immediately
necessary).
gcc-4.1 should have been tagged with:
Soft-conflict: linux-image-2.6.16-1-686, "Loadable Kernel Modules \
must be compiled with same gcc version as kernel"
Except that tag doesn't exist yet.
Developers may need to install multiple versions of GCC so you don't
necessarily want a hard conflict.
And linux-image-2.6.18-3-686 should have been tagged with something like
Soft-replaces: linux-image-2.6.16-1-686, "newer kernel is availible"
Except that tag doesn't exist yet.
Soft-replace:
- Would not require the removal of older package
- would suggest upgrade whenever you tried to install older package in
apt-get, aptitude, etc. either directly or as a result of another
action (installing a different package, upgrade, dist-upgrade, etc.)
Adding a message to "Recommends: ", "Suggests: ", etc. as I have done
with these new tags would also be helpful. Tell users WHY you recommend
them.
Recommends: libjpeg, "for optional jpeg import/export"
Of course, the exact syntax would need to be chosen to be compatible
with existing parsing.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US (charmap=ISO-8859-1)
Versions of packages dpkg depends on:
ii coreutils 5.97-5.2 The GNU core utilities
ii libc6 2.3.6.ds1-9 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
dpkg recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
