-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On 18 Feb 1998, James Troup wrote:
> Santiago Vila <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > [ ... ] > > > Perhaps we should just make mawk and gawk to Pre-Depend on libc6 > > instead? > > With all due respect, you've 100% missed the point of making awk an > essential package, the idea is to ensure that there is always an awk > available for {{pre,post}{inst,rm} scripts etc. without the need for a > dependency. If we go out of our way for perl in the same regard, to > not to do it also for good old awk would be criminal. No, I have not missed the point. Simply, you didn't understand the meaning of "instead". Please read. Manoj said that base-files should Depend on awk, so that awk is both "essential" and "virtual". I think everybody agrees on this. [ I will add the Depends line again in the next base-files release ]. However, Manoj suggested that base-files should not only Depend on awk but *Pre-Depend* on awk. But since you can not both *remove* one awk and *install* another awk on the same dpkg run, I think that the Pre-Depends line is not needed at all in base-files (i.e. "Depends: awk" is enough to ensure that awk is *installed* on the system). However, to ensure that awk is always present and *it always works* (i.e. it may be used safely in {pre,post}{inst,rm} scripts) perhaps mawk and gawk should Pre-Depend on libc6 (this is in addition to having base-files to *Depend* on awk), since any of them may be awk, which is essential. [*] So *instead* of having base-files to Pre-Depend on awk, perhaps we should make mawk and gawk to Pre-Depend on libc6 (and base-files Depend on awk). If you read again my mail, I said "I'm not sure that base-files should Pre-Depend on awk [...]". I did *not* say "instead of making base-files to Depend on awk". [*] Example: mawk.deb, B.deb and libc6.deb are hamm packages, which we are going to install in a bo system. We issue the following command: dpkg -i mawk.deb B.deb libc6.deb If awk is currently mawk and B's preinst uses awk, it will fail. A similar example could be made for gawk. Since any of them may be awk, the only workaround for this is to make both mawk and gawk Pre-Depend on libc6. Is this clear now? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: latin1 iQCVAgUBNOtAkCqK7IlOjMLFAQHP4QP+JUlpnZFn32nBjmmIhXb0A1aKW8qE/etK 9U3PQrXvSRplqjS49K7KrVbcUc3LeFWQYoa5h6KUbgvrF574d5ldbpmuBNiFlt7n Op//cdMdOkhzKIoNbcYa/yDPGdPpsU4swGhWpdnHWacFZq/PjvGyw+5vVM1GtnyS vglkzpaUNGw= =ZueE -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----