Re: [Fink-devel] New FAQ entry about "Failed: can't batch-install packages"

[Christian S. <ch...@us...>]

Hi Daniel

On 26.04.2004, at 18:52, Daniel Macks wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 26, 2004 at 05:18:35PM +0200, Christian Schaffner wrote:
>> On 26.04.2004, at 17:11, Martin Costabel wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't understand the usefulness of having
>>>
>>>  Conflicts: svn-client-ssl (<= 0.26.0-2)
>>>  Replaces: svn-client-ssl (<= 0.26.0-2)
>>>
>>> in a splitoff named svn-client-ssl. Doesn't every package conflict
>>> with and replace older versions of itself? Am I missing something?
>>
>> This is because there was a stand-alone package called 
>> 'svn-client-ssl'
>> before it appeared as a splitoff. At the time i did this (couple of
>> years ago...) i thought it made sense. I am no longer sure now, but i
>> think it doesn't hurt either.
>
> Under dpkg, there can never be more than one version (-revision) of a
> given real package installed at once. By the time dpkg sees things,
> there is no distinction between a parent and splitoff: each is a full
> and independent package.
>
> OTOH, fink knows this and for a couple of months has been (or at least
> should be:) automatically clearing the entry for a package from its
> own Conflicts/Replaces lists. This behavior is documented in the
> Packaging Manual.
>
> You can run 'dpkg -I' on the .deb with to see what happened, or if
> you're living on the CVS HEAD, 'fink dumpinfo -f conflicts,replaces
> whatever-pkg'.
>
> Tech note: this was implemented to make it easier to write
> mutually-exclusive variants and not have to worry about how a syntax
> to list "all variants but this one" in those fields. One simply lists
> *all*, and lets fink worry about removing %n.

Thanks for this information. I think i learned quite a bit. :) I now 
fixed the package.

Chris.