Package: dpkg Version: 1.10.9 Severity: wishlist I was trying to upgrade aptitude by installing it from a file fetched from aptitude's developer's homepage. I ran dpkg -i <package>, and files got unpacked. However, aptitude could not be configured, since it depends on an unistalled package. This kind of behaviour is harmful in some cases. User A has package1 and package2 installed on her system. Packages are important to the user. A new version of package1 is released. Unfortunately it conflicts with package2. Ms A fetches the the new version, because she has not heard about apt-get. Then she tries to install the package with dpkg -i. Unfortunately it can't be configured due to the conflict, so she ended up with a system that can't have both package1 and package2.
Wouldn't it be more convenient if dpkg warned the user about the conflicts before unpacking files? Here's the typescript: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# dpkg -i aptitude_0.2.12-1_i386.deb Selecting previously deselected package aptitude. (Reading database ... 16528 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking aptitude (from aptitude_0.2.12-1_i386.deb) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of aptitude: aptitude depends on libapt-pkg-libc6.3-5-3.3; however: Package libapt-pkg-libc6.3-5-3.3 is not installed. dpkg: error processing aptitude (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Errors were encountered while processing: aptitude -- System Information Debian Release: 3.0 Kernel Version: Linux debian 2.2.20 #1 Sat Apr 20 11:45:28 EST 2002 i586 unknown unknown GNU/Linux Versions of the packages dpkg depends on: ii dselect 1.10.9 a user tool to manage Debian packages ii libc6 2.3.1-11 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
