On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 3:07 AM, S h i v <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 11:33 AM, Danek Duvall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:43:12PM -0700, Jyri Virkki wrote: > > > > > Are there plans to support functional dependencies, so for example a > > > package can declare it needs "a database", and both MySQL and postgres > > > packages can fulfill that dependency? > > > > We've talked about this a handful of times, and have always run into a > > bunch of semantic fuzziness. For instance, if a package needs "a > database" > > and doesn't care which one (i.e., doesn't link against a database's > > libraries), then that dependency might even be satisfied by a database > > installed on another machine, listening on a port that your machine can > > talk to. > > > > Debian uses the following categories while providing inter package > relationship. > Depends > Recommends > Suggests > Enhances > Pre-Depends > > While this is not used to enforce resolution of the functional > dependency, the metadata can capture information beyond the > rudimentary and can provide valuable information to the user. Not sure > if IPS already has some such facility.
While those are interesting bits Debian provides, I personally think they overly complicate the package process. I was always extremely annoyed by the various prompts I got during installing packages on a Debian system. I tend to think this sort of metadata should be available strictly for a GUI, through optional query interfaces, or a special interactive mode of the packaging tool. I don't think it should be used automatically. The other problem with this sort of metadata is that it tends to increase packaging maintenance quite a bit, because it requires you to manage additional bits of package info in each package that has it. That can quickly become overwhelming. -- Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/ "To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." - Robert Orben _______________________________________________ pkg-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss
