Re: postgresql packages, PG_SUBPREFIX and CONFLICTS

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

CONFLICTS lines were originally essential, because there was only one
installation method, and it prevented a "make install" from
overwriting an existing file system entry with a newer one - the only
way to recover the original file was to install the original package
over the top.

There was no other reason to have the CONFLICTS line.

Even when we had CONFLICTS entries, the packages tended to change
underneath the package maintainer.  I can only assume complaints were
raised upstream, probably unrelated to pkgsrc, saying "if i have
majordomo installed, i can't use anything else with a file called
digest", or one of the other common conflicting items. And so CONFLICTS
entries became stale - they sometimes flagged packages unnecessarily.
And CONFLICTS entries were big hammers - they stopped building of
packages.

Then joerg introduced staged installation, we now have binary package
managers, and the situation changed.

There is now no reason to flag binary packages as conflicting.  The
package managers should be smart enough to figure it out.  If they're
not, then they need to grow the ability fast.  Installing a
conflicting file over the top is not such a big deal as it was,
because the original package is still around. But the problems with
CONFLICTS entries is still around - they can grow stale, no-one checks
them when packages change, etc.

So I'm against maintaining any CONFLICTS entries in package makefiles
themselves.

Regards,
Alistair