On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña wrote: > On Fri, Jun 01, 2007 at 12:55:57AM +0200, Santiago Vila wrote: > > I wonder why do we need a file to tell the user about the contents of > > his /etc/apt/sources.list file. Have you read "How do I know which > > distribution I'm running?" in base-files FAQ? The answer is still > > valid for *any* file which is part of an installed package. > > We are not telling the user, we are telling *programs* what environment they > are in.
That's the fundamental mistake I see here: We should not be telling programs what "release" they are running to begin with. We do not try to make packages to work under the assumption that they will run "on a sarge system" or "an etch system". Instead, we try to make them work as far as their dependencies are met.
