[CCing -devel because there are several questions below] > Package: libetpan15 > Version: 1.0-3 > Severity: critical > Justification: breaks unrelated software > > Installing libetpan15(-dev) causes libdb-4.8 libdb-4.7 libdb-4.6 to be > removed since libetpan depends on libdb-5.1. libdb5.1-dev cannot > coexists with libdb > libdb-5.1. Package should always be build against > latest version in Sid.
There are actually several separate issues here. *) libdb*-dev packages do conflict with each other. As soon as any package depends on one of libdb*-dev, none of others could be installed, and none of package depending on one of others. Don't know if it is a bug or a feature. #618965 is just an example of this. At least I doubt it is of severity critical. *) Generic question about dependences of libdev packages. If libfoo is linked against libbar, should libfoo-dev depend on libbar-dev? It is a question of policy. In old days, there was a requirement for such a dependency, to support static linking. But today very few people care about static linking. Is current policy on this documented anywhere? A pointer will be helpful... *) libetpan15 is linked against libdb4.8, but libetpan-dev depends on libdb5.1-dev This is a real bug (although not of severity critical!), and is caused by: - libetpan's configure script is not aware of libdb5.1, but knows about 4.8 and previous versions - in build environment, libdb4.8 package is pushed by some recursive dependences, - libdb4.8 provides libdb-4.8.so - so build successfully finishes against libdb-4.8, although libdb4.8-dev is not installed in build chroot - as for libetpan-dev dependency, it is computed by checking libdb-dev dependency [this was once implemented to support backporting], which currently is libdb5.1-dev So at least - I will fix libetpan to become aware of libdb5.1 - I will fix how libetpan-dev dependency is computed, to check actually used libdb instead of using libdb5.1 package dependeny Open question is - isn't it a bug in libdb4.8 that link against libdb4.8 suceeds when libdb4.8-dev is not installed? I don't know One more question: is it safe to have package linked against libdb4.8, and then re-link against libdb5.1? Won't that break things because of incompatible database format? [but AFAIK in case of libetpan this should be safe because libdb is used to cache things only]
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