glibc-headers RPM bug? (was: Re: Kernel dependency issues)

[Michael Schwendt]

On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:43:04 +0200 (EET), Panu wrote:

> Yup, just checked (from F-10 glibc.spec):
> 
> %package devel
> Summary: Object files for development using standard C libraries.
> Group: Development/Libraries
> Requires(pre): /sbin/install-info
> Requires(pre): %{name}-headers = %{version}-%{release}

   -R, --requires
          List packages on which this package depends.

  $ rpm -qR glibc-devel|grep ^glib
  glibc = 2.9-2
  glibc-headers = 2.9-2

As -R/--requires lists any sort of Requires() [even post/postun/...],
the results of this query are misleading, at least. A requirement
that is not a requirement, because rpm -e ignores it.

> "Requires(pre): pkg1" means "pkg1" is required to be present during 
> execution of %pre scriptlet of the package and nothing else. It does not 
> imply "Requires: pkg1", that would have to be separately added if pkg1 is 
> needed during installation *and* runtime.

That ought to be fixed in glibc-devel, then.

glibc-devel doesn't do anything in %pre that would require glibc-headers.
Perhaps it used to be PreReq (I won't look at old pkg releases now).

Changing the Requires(pre) into a normal Requires would be plausible.
The packages share a single %_includedir/gnu -- erasure ordering is a 
mess anyway with regard to unowned directories and complex dep-chains.
It would not be wrong to include the directory in both packages.