[Pkg-tcltk-devel] Bug#600086: itcl3.1: version conflict on startup with standard install

[Jeff Green]

Package: itcl3.1
Version: 3.1.0-9
Severity: important


When attempting to install sguil (non Debian package) that uses iwidgets (Debian pkg)
I came across this problem:

% ./sguil.tk
ERROR: Cannot fine the Iwidgets extension.
The iwidgets package is part of the incr tcl extension and is
available as a port/package most systems.
See http://www.tcltk.com/iwidgets/ for more info.
Memory fault

# Narrowing down the source of the problem;

%  /usr/bin/tclsh8.3
% package require Iwidgets
version conflict for package "Tcl": have 8.3, need 8.5
% Memory fault

# The version used here is right since:
%  dpkg -s iwidgets3.1 | grep Depends
Depends: itk3.1

# And:
% dpkg -s itk3.1 | grep Depends
Depends: itcl3.1 (= 3.1.0-9), libc6 (>= 2.7-1), libx11-6, tcl8.3 (>= 8.3.5), tk8.3 (>= 8.3.5)

# Consequently the dependencies are wrong.

# However, in the big scheme of things there are other problems, since:
% dpkg -l tclx*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name              Version           Description
+++-=================-=================-==================================================
un  tclx              <none>            (no description available)
ii  tclx8.3           8.3.5-6.1         Extended Tcl (TclX) version 8.3.5 -- TclX runtime
un  tclx8.3-doc       <none>            (no description available)

# And:
dpkg -l tkx*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name              Version           Description
+++-=================-=================-==================================================
un  tkx               <none>            (no description available)
ii  tkx8.3            8.3.5-6.1         Extended Tcl (TclX) version 8.3.5 -- TkX runtime p
un  tkx8.3-doc        <none>            (no description available)

# I.e. there is not a complete tcl/tk system in place for squeeze (still) if the 
# the dependencies are fixed for iwidgets by setting them to 8.5 in the pkg. There
# still needs to be a tclx/tkx package build for 8.5. Alternatively, there still needs
# to be available a working legacy 8.3 system for all of that old tcl software out there.

Apparently this same problem has been covered by an Ubuntu user. See:
http://nsmjunkie.blogspot.com/2010/05/sguil-client-error-with-ubuntu-1004.html

I didn't try to track down an ubuntu bug on this if one does exist.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-powerpc
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US.UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages itcl3.1 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.11.2-6   Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  tcl8.3                        8.3.5-14   Tcl (the Tool Command Language) v8

itcl3.1 recommends no packages.

itcl3.1 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information