Alistair Crooks <agc@pkgsrc.org> writes:

> What do you see as being the underlying problem?

I think what you're describing as "the open-ended dependency problem
when building from source.

I build libfoo1.2, and appA that links against it.

Later, perhaps much later, I update pkgsrc. I build appB, which also
wants libfoo, but since libfoo is updated to 1.3 now, it wants to
build that.

As I underestand it, pkgviews will let libfoo1.2 and 1.3 coexist,
which prevents having to remove appA, remove libfoo, and rebuild
both. That's progress.

If RECOMMENDED will make appA happy with the existing libfoo1.2,
that's also progress.

Finally, I think it should be possible, and even the default, to
replace libfoo1.2 with libfoo1.3 if the newer package *really* needs
1.3, assume backwards-compatibility, and don't touch appA in the
process (assuming appA's recorded soname for libfoo is just libfoo.1,
which is what it should be).

        - Nathan