Hi, I'm trying to write some software to visualise conflicts that arise between packages in debian unstable. As a first step I'm trying to understand the debian package descriptions in /var/lib/dpkg/{available,status}. An I have some questions:
1. What is a good source for an explaination of package dependencies and the actions of dselect and apt-get. So far I've only found the man pages for dpkg, dselect, and apt-get and the debian policy manual. 2. Looking at my system (visible in the status file) I see that I have installed gs-common 0.3.7, and gs-gpl 8.01-5, now gs-common conflicts with 'gs (<< 6.51)' but gs-gpl provides gs. So my question is: does an expression 'gs (<< 6.51)' include the virtual package gs? So far I have been modelling that the virtual package gs has an empty version which comes before any other version, but that would see an expression like 'gs (<< 6.51)' match a package 'gs'. What about if a package depends on 'gs (<< 6.51)' would that be satisfied by a package that provided gs? 3. Has anyone tried to formally describe package dependencies in in debian and the rules under which a package may or may not be installed? regards, Richard. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]