[repo-coord] Re: [apt-rpm] Re: APT and Versioned Obsoletes

[Jeff Pitman]

[See my comments at the end]

On Wednesday 18 August 2004 22:08, Gustavo Niemeyer wrote:
> Hello folks!
>
> > Yes, that's newer rpms do have this nice "feature" that effectively
> > turn any versioned Provides to a versioned Obsoletes, e.g.
> >
> > Provides: foo = bar implies Obsoletes: foo <= bar
>
> That's a big surprise to me as well.
>
> > Why this was defined as a wanted features, I don't know, it looks
> > quite broken to me, as there are valid cases, where a Provides
> > should not imply an Obsoletes, like in the case of allowing
> > multiple versions of the same package to exist. :(
>
> It looks broken to me as well. Using Provides and Obsoletes together
> was always an option, if that was the intent.
>
> [...]
>
> > Wrt apt: It would be nice if apt were aware about the fact of
> > implicit Obsoletes for rpm >=  4.2.1 (?) and display that this
> > package will be removed. It has bitten quite a lot of folks :(
>
> These are considered upgrades anyway, so I belive that based
> on current APT practice, it won't show up even if we mark it
> as an obsoletes relation. OTOH, I'm curious about what will
> happen with dependencies on the package being removed. This
> might be a reason for APT to follow the relation.

This is, currently, biting me real bad trying to build a solid set of 
packages that Obsolete the system-delivered python package with my own.  
The reason I do this is to implement an alternatives system and other 
compat-style changes to make things sit well for a large number of 
distros.

My first email to atrpms and my subsequent (forgetful, but still needs 
more discussion) email to the apt-rpm list both explain why.  The 
reason is simply this:

- I need to rename python to python22 when python = 2.2.2.
- I need to rename python to python15 when python = 1.5.2.
- I need to just upgrade python when python = 2.3.3.
- I need to install python = 2.3.4 along side python22 and python15.

If someone could enlighten me on how to do this without Versioned 
Obsoletes, I'd love to hear from you!

take care,
-- 
-jeff