Bug#726879: jedit: depends solely on virtual packages (javaX-runtime)

Eric Lavarde bugs.debian.nospam at lavar.de
Sun Oct 20 06:46:05 UTC 2013


Package: jedit
Version: 5.0.0+dfsg-3
Severity: normal

Hi,

I just noticed that jedit depends only on "java7-runtime | java6-runtime",
which are both virtual packages.

It is allegedly a breach of policy, I've been told but the only place I
could find is chapter 7.4:
	To specify which of a set of real packages should be the default
	to satisfy a particular dependency on a virtual package, list the
	real package as an alternative before the virtual one.

Anyway, from a practical standpoint, it means that a user trying to
install this package without having yet the dependency resolved, will
get a question about which package he wants to install to resolve the
"virtual dependency", and it's a question normal/dumb/simple users don't
know how to answer (and don't need to).

This dependency in the control file would simply solve the issue:
	Depends: default-jre | java7-runtime | java6-runtime

Cheers, Eric

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.2
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'stable-updates')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_IE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_IE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash



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