[debian-mysql] Bug#732878: Add MariaDB as an alternative dependency

[Luca Capello]

Hi there!

On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 16:53:47 +0100, Otto Kekäläinen wrote:
> 2013/12/25 Thomas Goirand <zigo at debian.org>:
>> Don't you think it would be more reasonable if the mariadb-client
>> contained a Provides: mysql-client, rather than changing each and every
>> software dependency in Debian?
>>
>> Adding debian-devel@, as I think it should be discussed more broadly.
>
>
> We discussed this on the pkg-maint-mysql list and the recommended policy is now:
>
> All packages that at the moment depend directly on mysql-client should
> instead have something like:
>
> Depends: the-one-they-tested-with | virtual-mysql-client
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> (or Suggests or Recommends)
>
> At the moment in unstable the packages mysql-server-5.5 and
> mariadb-server-5.5 have
> Provides: mysql-virtual-server
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> and mysql-client-5-5 and mariadb-client-5.5 have
> Provides: mysql-virtual-client
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While doing the necessary changes for #732879 for Bacula, I found that
the above names mismatch: which are the correct one?  The same confusion
is on the Debian wiki:

  <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/MySQL/virtual-mysql-server?action=recall&rev=2>

Moreover, I suppose the MySQL team use the virtual packages privately as
per Debian Policy "§ 3.6 Virtual packages", otherwise please ask for the
inclusion in that document:

  <https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-binary.html#s-virtual_pkg>

  All packages should use virtual package names where appropriate, and
  arrange to create new ones if necessary. They should not use virtual
  package names (except privately, amongst a cooperating group of
  packages) unless they have been agreed upon and appear in the list of
  virtual package names. (See also Virtual packages - Provides, Section
  7.5)

As a final note, AFAIK no other (virtual or not) package contains the
"virtual" name in it (except for the old java-virtual-machine or other
packages for obvious reasons, like virtualbox).  I guess in this case
the different choice was driven by the fact that we already have "real"
package names for mysql-[server|client].  However, I could not find any
reasoning in the pkg-mysql-maint@ mailing list, which reminds me of the
question Thomas asked at the beginning of this bug ;-)

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca
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