[wpkg-users] [Bug 117] Dependencies ignore priority

[bugzilla-daemon at bugzilla.wpkg.org]

http://bugzilla.wpkg.org/show_bug.cgi?id=117





--- Comment #8 from Rainer Meier <r.meier at wpkg.org>  2008-05-09 17:05:51 ---
> I came across this problem with an installation of office: my "officeXP"
> package depends on "officeXP service pack 3" which has to be installed after
> office. I could reverse the dependencies so that the "officeXP service pack 3"
> package depends on the "officeXP" package

This is exactly how it is meant to be used. The service pack is for sure
depending on the installation of OfficeXP - not the other way around!

I've never ever seen a program which interprets 'dependency' in another way. If
thing b depends on thing a then for sure thing a needs to be done BEFORE thing
b can be done. Did some of you ever use a project management tool like OpenProj
or MS Project? Try defining a dependency, you will never ever be able to
execute task b before task a if task b depends on task a.
Also in every dictionary everybody can read that a dependency means that the
thing which I depend on needs to be done in advance in order to be able to
finish my task.


> but what do I do when "officeXP service pack 4" comes out?

Service Pack 4 will simply also depend on OfficeXP. Period.
Then you just add Service Pack 4 to the profile - finished. If OfficeXP is
installed already (or installed before due to higher priority) then Service
Pack x is just installing. If OfficeXP is not yet installed when it's the turn
of the Service Pack it will install OfficeXP _before_.
So in fact you would even not have to add OfficeXP to the profile. Just add the
Service Pack and it makes sure Office is installed too. That's true dependency
management.

Another approach is what is requested in Bug 111. OfficeXP could specify
"chained" installation. So it could specify to install the Service Pack (and
some patches as well) after installing OfficeXP (defined within the OfficeXP
package). But even here I would specify a DEPENDENCY within the Service Pack
package to OfficeXP. So if a profile is faulty (Service Pack within the profile
OfficeXP not) it will not fail horribly but make sure OfficeXP is installed.


Now this request brings in another aspect. As proposed an <include /> node
could be introduced. The difference to dependencies and chained installations
is that the packages included might be installed either before or after the
package according to their priority.

Of course one could also build some kind of "lazy" dependency by using include
and playing with the priorities. As this is quite easy when looking at a few
packages it gets very complex when hundreds of package are involved. It would
become very hard to trace that actually all packages required for a program
have a higher priority. Then it is much easier to define a hard dependency.


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