On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Philippe Troin wrote: > > On Wed, 08 Jan 1997 15:42:27 +0100 Gertjan Klein ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > wrote: > > > One of my most serious criticisms is the fact that in spite of the > > dependencies being known, packages aren't installed in the right order. > > If package 1 depends on package 2, then package 2 *must* be installed > > *first*. This isn't done; I consider this a bug, that should be > > reported. > > Not a bug. What you describe is pre-dependencies. It's a bit too long > to explain here, but you can find all the details in the Debian > policy manual. > Dpkg does the work right... so far. > > Phil.
I beg to differ, but dpkg has not been doing the work right on my system. Indeed if you read the install reports being posted, you'll see that the "fix" for many instllation problems is to reinstall the broken package as its depended upon package was probably installed after it. gcc, perl, some parts of the libc stuff (don't remember which or what) gagged on me. In dselect it was too easy to fix to care about it (despite its bad wrap about the interface, dselect really does kick ass), so I don't have any specifics. I think Gertjan is right. Pre-dependencies are only for packages that rely on a fully functional (i.e. unpacked and configured) package in order to install. Dependencies on packages that are required for the package to run (but not required for installation) should not be pre-depended upon. These are just standard depends. Although largely this works out OK, I have seen some problems on my system with it and have certainly seen enough reports here to agree with Gertjan. I think that Dale and someone else (maybe Manoj?) are working on dselect back end type stuff that addresses this ordering issue. That would take the burden off of dpkg to do this when the new back end is in use anyway. Thanks Richard G. Roberto [EMAIL PROTECTED] 011-81-3-3437-7967 - Tokyo, Japan -- ******************************************************************************* Bear Stearns is not responsible for any recommendation, solicitation, offer or agreement or any information about any transaction, customer account or account activity contained in this communication. ******************************************************************************* -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
