Bug#273847: Bug#274747: type-handling: dependency on dpkg-dev is not required for provides

[Robert Millan]

On Tue, Oct 05, 2004 at 05:36:08PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > 
> > You're right, looks like there's a limitation here.  I'll leave this bug open
> > to see if someone can come up with another solution.
> 
> What's wrong with a package haing the provides type-handling currently 
> has? This might be a different package than the one shipping the 
> type-handling script, but it seems like a technically simple way to 
> solve some problems.

Unfortunately virtual provides bring trouble with auto-builders, so they're
deprecated.  I'm trying to provide a solution that works for everyone by using
the script instead.

> > In your particular problem: when grub is not present, a Recommends on grub
> > has no effect, so it's safe to recommend it.  OTOH, grub2 will be multi-cpu
> > so you might want to have it as a fallback option, like:
> > 
> >   Recommends: grub | grub2
> 
> Besides that it wouldn't solve the general problem, grub2 is according 
> to debian/control currently only targeted at i386 and powerpc.

As I said before, when grub (or grub2) is not present, a Recommends on grub
(or grub2) has no effect so it's safe to use it.  It also archieves
pro-active compatibility when grub2 is ported to more cpus (which it will).

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