clone 656882 -1
retitle 656882 [new check] warn about incorrect §7.6.2 usage
severity 656882 wishlist
thanks
On 2012-01-22 21:10, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Niels Thykier <ni...@thykier.net> writes:
>
>> By the looks of it [1], Lintian does not handle self relations too
>> well with Replaces + Provides.
>
>> The observation done so far is that xabacus (Provides, Conflicts and
>> Replaces itself) is correctly done (in terms of §7.6.2).
>
>> The apache2-suexec package does not provide itself (but it has
>> Conflicts and Replaces on itself). The question is whether or not it
>> needs the provide itself explicitly.
>
> I don't think it should, although the dpkg maintainers would know for
> sure. But I suspect Lintian should say that's fine in the case where the
> virtual package name is the same as the real package name, as it is in
> this case.
>
We are looking at §7.4 I guess:
"""
A special exception is made for packages which declare a conflict with
their own package name, or with a virtual package which they provide
(see below): this does not prevent their installation, and allows a
package to conflict with others providing a replacement for it. You use
this feature when you want the package in question to be the only
package providing some feature.
"""
This smells like "Provides: $self" is redundant. However, I also found
this:
"""
Conflicts should be used
[...]
in conjunction with Provides when only one package providing a
given virtual facility may be unpacked at a time (see Virtual
packages - Provides, Section 7.5),
"""
I suspect people reading the "in conjunction with Provides" as "Always
add the Provides field".
In terms of dpkg, I get the feeling that "either way works".
>> Also not sure what is up with nvidia-kernel-dkms. By the looks of it,
>> it is using §7.6.2, but missing a replaces. Russ, is that correctly
>> asserted of me?
>
> Yes, that looks correct. I think that set of packages should all have
> Replaces as well.
>
Okay, I guess it would be good to have a separate tag for checking
proper §7.6.2 usage.
For now I will commit a fix to ignore "Replaces: $self" and "Provides:
$self" with a "Closes" for the cloned bug. This bug (i.e. #656882)
stays until we get the §7.6.2 check implemented.
~Niels
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