Bug#309604: Bug#309437: libpango1.0-common <-> libpango1.0-0 circular dependencies

[Bill Allombert]

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 09:25:32PM +0200, Loïc Minier wrote:
>         Hi Bill,

Hi Loïc,

> On Tue, May 17, 2005, Bill Allombert wrote:
> > libpango1.0-0 depends on libpango1.0-common and libpango1.0-common
> > depends on libpango1.0-0.  This is a circular dependency and cause
> > problem during woody to sarge upgrade.
> 
> On Wed, May 18, 2005, Bill Allombert wrote:
> > libgtk2.0-0 and libgtk2.0-common have a circular dependency.
> > This can cause problems when upgrading to sarge:
> 
>  Thanks for your reports, sadly, this is a known problem with the way
>  apt-get calls dpkg, and has nothing to do with pango or gtk themselves.

I beg to differ. 

>  The following D-D thread explains in some depth the root cause:
>     <http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/01/msg01784.html>
>  ... and suggests to document the problem in the RELEASE NOTES with the
>  workaround of upgrading apt-get first.
>    This was even already reported against gtk, in #296175, and I won't
>  argue that circular depends are perfectly valid: the fact is it plainly
>  sucks that people have to be bitten by such problems during an upgrade.
> 
>  I hope we will find a way to work around this apt-get bug, but any
>  dependency change is scaring so close to a release.

The current documented way to upgrade is to use 'aptitude dist-upgrade'
which give much better results than apt-get.

I agree changing dependencies for sarge might not an option, though
this was done for gnome-applets (See #309341).

However, the dpkg behaviour documented by Debian policy section 7.2 does not
allow packages with circular dependencies to be installed _at all_. This
means that each of them is a potential upgrade breakage, so we should
strive to reduce them. 

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.