[Slapt-get-devel] hello

[Luke Yelavich]

Hi there.
On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 09:23:49AM EST, Chris Lewis wrote:
> Well before I bring up something, I need to know how slapt-get evaluates 
> version expressions - specifically the qualifications of less/greater 
> than. How exactly to the arch and build fields factor in to the 
> equation? Do they affect less/greater than at all?
> An example (or several) might be more concise. First off, lets take the 
> package libdvdread-0.9.4-i486-1.tgz. Lets say this pkg is a dep of 
> dvdbackup-0.1-i486-1.tgz, listed as the minimum threshold version (>=) 
> of libdvdread. According the the FAQ the version arch and build factor 
> into the composite package version. so this package is 0.9.4-i486-1. 
> What if the user had this library installed by any of the following 
> package names:
> 
>    libdvdread-0.9.4-i386-1.tgz        (differing yet upward compatible 
> arch)
>    libdvdread-0.9.4-i586-1.tgz        (differing yet backward 
> compatible arch)
>    libdvdread-0.9.4-i686-1.tgz        (differing yet backward 
> compatible arch)
>    libdvdread-0.9.4-i486-2.tgz        (up one build #)
>    libdvdread-0.9.4-i686-5.tgz        (differing yet backward 
> compatible arch, and higher build #)

This has also been on my mind for a while, so I ran some tests. It seems that
the Slackware package tools aren't written to handle this, because Patt thought
that nobody else would make packages with different architectures or tags. The
upgradepkg command is actually quite sloppy in this regard, as it certainly
doesn't check version number or architecutre.

So as I see it, if the official Slackware package system doesn't do it, 
Jason can't really implement it for Slackware unless he is willing to write his
own package installation and upgrade routines to cover for this problem.
-- 
Luke Yelavich
http://www.audioslack.com
luke at audioslack.com