Package: dpkg Version: 1.14.18 Severity: wishlist Hi, When I get an error because one package overwrites a file from another file, I often retreat to using --force-overwrite. After all, I'm a developer and I should know how to recover (e.g. by reinstalling the other package).
But also I'm always thinking: "What if it will overwrite another file"? dpkg will stop at the first overwrite error, the --force-overwrite will then allow any file to be overwritten. I'd love to see some more fine grained control here, e.g. by having --force-overwrite=otherpackage which would only allow files from this other package to be overwritten. That would probably cover 95% of the cases where I get this error. Most of the time these overwriting errors occur when one package is missing a Replaces: header and a file was moved from one package to another. The latest example was libqt4, where the file /usr/lib/qt4/plugins/codecs/libqcncodecs.so apparently was moved from libqt4-gui to libqt4-core. So basically I'd like to be able to say dpkg --force-overwrite=libqt4-gui /var/cache/apt/archives/libqtcore4*.deb And get another error if e.g. that package would try to overwrite /bin/sh -- System Information: Debian Release: lenny/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.25-rc6 (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT) Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Versions of packages dpkg depends on: ii coreutils 6.10-6 The GNU core utilities ii libc6 2.7-10 GNU C Library: Shared libraries dpkg recommends no packages. -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]