Magnus Holmgren wrote:
> When a binary package is renamed or split, as well as if several packages are
> merged under a new name, transitional packages are normally created, which
> depend on the new packages, which in turn Replaces and Conflicts with, and
> possibly Provides, the old packages. I find those dummy packages as silly to
> create as to uninstall after upgrading.
Seconded.

> I propose a new control field called e.g. Supersedes that will provide the
> same semantics. In its simplest form, a renamed package will declare that it
> Supersedes the old package name. That will be considered equivalent to
> conflicting with/replacing earlier versions of the superseded package, as well
> as providing a new version of it, just like a dummy package. Multiple packages
> can supersede the same package (but they should probably be the same version),
> and one package can of course supersede many others.
>
I support this, however with not implying Conflicts/Replaces/Provides when
Supersedes is specified. Supersedes would be just a 'proposal' to a package
manager to remove old package name and install the new one, i.e. explicitly
declared upgrade path.

--
Eugene V. Lyubimkin aka JackYF, JID: jackyf.devel(maildog)gmail.com
C++/Perl developer, Debian Developer