Subject: Re: When DEPENDS can be upgraded in place
To: NetBSD Packages Technical Discussion List <tech-pkg@NetBSD.ORG>
From: David Brownlee <abs@NetBSD.ORG>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/08/2000 22:30:36
	It looks like there may be some time yet before everyone reaches
	consensus on the correct way to update packages in all cases.

	Just a thought - do we all agree on the very basic:
	
	- Packages can be divided into two types
	    a) those that do not install any libraries
	    b) those that install libraries

	- It should be possible to upgrade a package of type 'a' without
	  removing and reinstalling any packages that depend upon it.

	- Type 'b' need some kind of special handling on upgrades, and
	  to handle binary packages built against different DEPENDencies.
	
	- To (potentially) complicate this slightly - packages such as
	  suse_x11 install libraries, but are not compiled against, so
	  could be considered type 'a'.

	If anyone has issues with the above, then we should probably
	try to resolve them before proceeding further :)

	If we can agree, then we could look towards trying to teach pkgsrc
	about the two different types of dependencies, and simplify type 'a',
	which keeping the debate on how to handle type 'b' raging...
	

                David/absolute
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