Okay, I'm getting mighty tired of "I can't find system-java14-dev"
questions, and wondered how we could better handle these virtual
packages. Currently, when VirtPackage does not find the requisite
files for a given system-foo, the system-foo virtual package does not
get created. That means users without the files have a fink that has
never heard of system-foo. Two similar ideas came to mind, both aimed
at giving these people at least some stub of a package that provides
information on how to get the actual files.

1. When the files are not found, generate a package for system-foo
that has a CompileScript that gives a verbose message about where to
download whatever-is-needed and then fails. That way 'fink insall bar'
where "bar:BuildDepends:x11-dev" will give the usual "do you want
xfree86-dev or system-xfree86-dev" instead of assuming (usually
incorrectly) to use the fink package, and then when user picks the
system- one will get an error message about having to install
X11User.pkg.

2. Have actual system-foo packages with "very low" version numbers
that have the verbose-instructions/exit-with-error as PreInstScript.
That way if the virtual package is present it will supercede this one.
By having a real package as a backup, even binary-dist folks will
benefit (cf. #1, where someone without X11User.pkg using apt would not
get the new message).

dan

-- 
Daniel Macks
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.netspace.org/~dmacks



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