further package removals/potential package removals

[Florian La Roche]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 09:02:15AM +0100, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> 
> > Meanwhile, new packaging for, say, nautilus which has
> >     Requires(missingok): gnome-vfs2-smb
> > and a depsolver that tests RPMSENSE_MISSINGOK drop a sub-tree that
> > is optional.
> > 
> > I fail to see a mulberry bush, except in this loopy and endless fretting.
> > 
> > Show me the mulberries *please*.
> 
> 
> user goes from package-1.0-1.0 to package-1.1-1.0 which now had a
> Requires(missingok): gnome-vfs2-smp. Fine; yum (for the sake of
> argument) grabs gnome-vfs2-smp as well and everything is happy.
> Now the user gets annoyed by the "bloat" and removes gnome-vfs2-smp.
> Still fine.
> 
> Then a security update comes out, package-1.1-1.1 and the user of course
> upgrades to that. yum will *AGAIN* pull in gnome-vfs2-smp. User gets
> really annoyed and considers this not-fine.
> 
> Would there be a way to version the missingok such that it's a hint to
> the depsolver to only solve the dep if the old package is matching the
> versioning ?
> 


Sounds to me like we should install gnome-vfs2-smb via comps.xml to
provide it per default for new installs, but also let people de-install it.
Then the remaining item is to look at updates. I think with good error
messages and maybe some release notes this should be ok, not that much
more rpm deps can solve for this situation.

greetings,

Florian La Roche