On Wed, Jun 24, 1998 at 05:55:47AM -0400, Raul Miller wrote: > I took a look at putting virtual package versions into dpkg, and > realized that there were some undefined issues: > > (1) If a package provides a package version and some other package > conflicts with that package version, this would be a conflict, right? [I > suspect we'll eventually regret this.] > > (2) A package should be able to provide multiple versions of a virtual > package, right? [See (1) for one of the implications] >
I understand your points but you should consider that a package provides eithera virtual package (resolving non-version dependencies) or a specific package version (resolving any dependencies that accept this particular version of the package). If a package provides multiple versions of one or multiple packages, it should be only because it has the interface for all of them (example xemacs provides w3, compface, etc...). Don't put range in the provide field, it will be unuseful and confusing when mix with range dependancies ( I agreed although that I would prefer to see range providing (for backward compatibility, as example) and version fix dependancies. This encapsulate a little more the principle of library interface then the current scheme with virtual package - Note that I call library everything that provide a service, either a dictionnary thana program or a real lib.so). > Also note that I'm deliberately blurring the distinction between virtual > packages and packages which provide "real package names"... I could not > find any policy on providing non-virtual packages. Hum.. Isn't mentionned that a virtual package can have the same name than a real package? The policy doesn't make distinction between virtual and real packages when talking about dependencies except that only real packages can resolved version dependencies (currently :) > > I don't like this blurred distinction, but at the moment I'm not sure > how it should be best addressed. > > -- > Raul > Ciao! > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fabien Ninoles Debian GNU/Linux maintainer aka Corbeau aka Baffouille The Freedom of Choice E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WebPage: http://www.callisto.si.usherb.ca/~94246757 RSA PGP KEY [E3723845]: 1C C1 4F A6 EE E5 4D 99 4F 80 2D 2D 1F 85 C1 70 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
