Re: dependencies

[Borko Jandras <Borko.Jandras@public.srce.hr>]

> 
> >So...let's say we have a file, maybe in /var/log, that stores entryes
> 
> Something in the /usr/lib hierarchy would be more appropriate, but this
> is a very small point.

Nope, it should definitely go in the /var hierarchy, because var partition
is mounted read-write, while /usr partition is (should be) mounted read-only.
Also, things that go in /usr/lib are libraryes and alike, plus some files
related to particular program. Any file that is changed often, like
configuration file, should not reside in /usr

> This would make sense, except different packages would contain different
> versions of the file. And just blindly installing the new version might
> break the other packages that use that file, whereas not installing the
> new version (because our file-counter says we already have it) would break
> the new package (in an ideal case, the package manager would somehow
> set things up such that both versions could exist in parallel, so both
> packages would work. Or is this the package manager's job at all?).

If there are different versions of the same file, then that files should
be named differently. Just like shared libraries are (libsomething.so.version).

> Dependencies are more than just which packages own which files -- we also
> have to keep track of which packages need which version of each file.
> RPM does this more broadly by keeping track of which packages need which
> version of which other packages. I think it's a good idea to record
> things like this (by groups-of-files rather than by each file), because
> it's cleaner organizationally.


Sure, this usage-count thing can expand to keep track on usage of whole
packages.

-- 
Borko Jandras	<bjandras@jagor.srce.hr>