Your message dated Wed, 6 Jan 2010 13:17:25 +0100 (CET)
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Re: Bug#563895: diffutils: undeclared conflict with
diff<=2.8.1-12 (from lenny)
has caused the Debian Bug report #563895,
regarding diffutils: undeclared conflict with diff<=2.8.1-12 (from lenny)
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
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--
563895: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=563895
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: diffutils
Version: 1:2.8.1-18
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 7.6.1
Hello,
I've added 'unstable' in my sources.list for some *noarch packages and after
the last dist-upgrade the 'diffutils' package was installed due to being
'Essential: yes'. However, I realized that this package is not a part of
lenny and I uninstalled. The problem is that the binary '/usr/bin/diff' is
now missing but is a part of 'diff=2.8.1-12' from lenny too.
In conclussion something is missing from 'diffutils' to force uninstall or
upgrade of diff<=2.8.1-12 from lenny. I don't know if Breaks: or Conflict:
is more appropriate for this configuration.
Thanks
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-trunk-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages diffutils depends on:
ii libc6 2.10.2-2 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
diffutils recommends no packages.
Versions of packages diffutils suggests:
pn diffutils-doc <none> (no description available)
-- no debconf information
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
On Wed, 6 Jan 2010, Teodor MICU wrote:
> Package: diffutils
> Version: 1:2.8.1-18
> Severity: serious
> Justification: Policy 7.6.1
>
> Hello,
>
> I've added 'unstable' in my sources.list for some *noarch packages and after
> the last dist-upgrade the 'diffutils' package was installed due to being
> 'Essential: yes'.
Please note that whether or not new essential packages have to be
installed "just because they are essential" is subject to debate.
In testing and unstable, diff is now a dummy package which depends on
diffutils. That is the intended reason for diffutils to be installed,
not the fact that it's a new essential package.
Also, please note that if you have unstable in sources.list and, as
you say, do a dist-upgrade, then for all purposes you are no longer
running "lenny".
> However, I realized that this package is not a part of
> lenny and I uninstalled.
So, I assume you know what you are doing and are brave enough to
uninstall an essential package. Good.
> The problem is that the binary '/usr/bin/diff' is
> now missing but is a part of 'diff=2.8.1-12' from lenny too.
Aha, you are brave enough to uninstall an essential package and mix
stable and unstable (which is normally not supported), but not brave
enough to remove the diff package that no longer contains /usr/bin/diff
and reinstall it again:
dpkg --purge diff (use also --force-remove-essential if required)
apt-get install diff=2.8.1-12
Well, I don't buy this. Either you know what you are doing, or you don't.
If you do, you should be prepared to fix this for yourself, as the
package system, in general, does not support "downgrades". If you
don't, you should not be mixing stable and unstable to begin with.
> In conclussion something is missing from 'diffutils' to force uninstall or
> upgrade of diff<=2.8.1-12 from lenny. I don't know if Breaks: or Conflict:
> is more appropriate for this configuration.
There is not an undeclared Conflict, because it was never my intention
to force the removal of diff when diffutils is installed.
The upgrade path for diff is like this: You dist-upgrade to squeeze
and then you will have a diff which is dummy and the new diffutils.
As the dummy diff is in section oldlibs, deborpahn will tell the user
that it may be removed.
This way the upgrade to squeeze is completely smooth as far as
diff/diffutils is concerned.
If you didn't want to install a new essential package from unstable,
you should have put "diff" on hold.
To summarize: This is how it's intended to be. Mixing stable and
unstable is not supported. If you do so, you should be prepared to fix
things here and there.
--- End Message ---
