Here are my thoughts on significant points in chapters 7-10,
continuing the series.
7.2 Binary dependencies
This section states that "All but Pre-Depends and Conflicts take
effect only when a package is to be configured." But actually,
dpkg appears to ignore everything except for (Pre-)Depends,
(sometimes) Recommends and Conflicts. So what should this say?
7.2 Depends: should also mention "or if it is required by the
postinst, prerm or postrm scripts".
7.2 Similarly, Pre-Depends should be mentioned for preinst scripts.
7.5 States:
Virtual packages (Section 7.4, `Virtual packages - `Provides'') are
not considered when looking at a `Replaces' field - the packages
declared as being replaced must be mentioned by their real names.
But does it in a Provides/Conflicts/Replaces scenario, as
described in 7.5.2?
7.5.1 States:
In the future `dpkg' will discard files which would overwrite those
from an already installed package which declares that it replaces the
package being installed. This is so that you can install an older
version of a package without problems.
Has this now happened?
Chapter 8
This should be removed in favour of the configuration file stuff
elsewhere in the policy document, which itself could be expanded
slightly to describe what dpkg does with conffiles.
Chapter 9
Should mention that ld.so might actually be ld-linux.so or
something else instead.
9.2.1 The introductory lines need rewriting: debian/shlibs *becomes*
/var/lib/dpkg/info/<package>.shlibs.
9.2.2 Should say what dpkg-shlibdeps actually does if we're going to
say anything at all.
9.2.* Do we need /etc/dpkg/shlibs.default any longer?
9.2.4 Needs a rewrite.
10.1.1: The FHS is not Linux-specific any longer
10.1.2: Surely directories should be removed by postrm, not prerm?
(Prerm may not always be called, eg if a package disappears.)
10.3.2: Hard question:
Not all of start, stop, restart etc. are relevant for everything
in /etc/init.d, for example checkfs.sh. We should figure out a
way of distinguishing between daemons (which should accept all of
these) and specific startup/shutdown scripts (which needn't).
10.3.2: Should "The start, stop, restart and force-reload options
should be supported" be replaced by "must be supported",
contingent on the above suggestion?
10.8:
"X translations are set up ... all local X displays" -- should
this be "X servers"?
That's enough for now!
Julian
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Julian Gilbey, Dept of Maths, Queen Mary, Univ. of London
Debian GNU/Linux Developer, see http://people.debian.org/~jdg
Donate free food to the world's hungry: see http://www.thehungersite.com/
