[debian-mysql] Current dependency on virtual pkgs may trigger vendor shift

[Akhil Mohan]

Hi,

I would like to bring attention to the virtual package provision
recently made for handling the multi-vendor setup. Possibly others may
have seen it earlier still it may need more discussion. The current
setup will select the vendor supporting the highest version and
providing the virtual packages, naming a few:

  * virtual-mysql-server
  * virtual-mysql-server-core
  * virtual-mysql-client
  * virtual-mysql-client-core

As of now, the default selection while trying to install any package
that depends on 'mysql-server' (or virtual-mysql-server) will depend on
the version of packages providing the functionality. This means when
user is expecting a specific package set to get installed as default he
may end with completely different set of packages. This will depend upon
the version number comparison between competing packages. This will open
doors for unexpected vendor shift and potential data loss. We may need
to look into it and discuss an alternative way of handling default and
non-default set of packages.

Regards,
Akhil