On Thu, Dec 04, 2003 at 02:15:30AM +1000, Anthony Towns wrote: > On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 04:41:00PM +0100, Marc Haber wrote: >> as co-maintainer for the exim4-packages, I have noticed an issue with >> dselect. Currently, exim4 is the default MTA, and exim4, exim4-base, >> exim4-config and exim4-daemon-light are Priority: important, while >> exim4-daemon-light provides mail-transport-agent. The exact package >> dependencies can be seen in the archive. > What are they, exactly, and why are they that way?
exim4 is a metapackage that depends on the other three and is not hit by the problem. The rest is a straighforward chain. With "-->--" as "depends on": daemon -->-- -base -->-- -config. other possible dependencies would be: daemon -->-- -config -->-- -base or daemon -->-- -base `---->-- -config The daemon-packages provide/conflict/replaces MTA. The main point is that the daemon is started by its own postinst and therefore it requires ATM -base to be unpacked (init-script) and -config to be configured. Afaict starting/stopping the the daemon in its own postinst/prerm is really the only correct thing to do as it needs to be restarted when only daemon is upgraded or when you exchange daemon-light for daemon-heavy. cu andreas