[csw-maintainers] Incompatible packages? Musing about mtr and mtr-tiny

[Philip Brown]

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Sebastian Kayser <skayser at opencsw.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> what's the current stance on incompatible packages? We currently have
> "mtr" in it's GUI version in the catalog which pulls in the whole g* and
> X11 chain. I would like to update it and also release an additional,
> non-GUI package (with a reduced dependency chain) as "mtr-tiny" and set
> it to incompatible with "mtr". The binary name in both cases is the same
> "mtr".

>...

> Do pkg-get/pkgutil support the concept of incompatible packages at all,
> i.e. would they uninstall an incompatible package before installing the
> new one?

they WOULD uninstall an incompatible package. however, you are only
allowed to be "incompatible" with a package that is no longer in
"current".
Happily, you have other options.

[What I had written up, I am now editing, because current mtr pkg is orphaned]

So, you have volunteered to take over the mgr package. You thus have a
few options that I see.
(there may be more,but here are the "obvious" ones that come to mind):

A) Take over mgr, publish it with the "tiny" compiled version, but
hopefully also release a GUI version, which you can then rename
"mtr_x11" or something

B) [I would normaly suggest a combined package, but you explicitly
want a reduced dependancy package, so this option is scratched]

C) publish  mtr_tiny and  mtr_x11;have a postinstall or something
create a symlink from "mtr" to whichever the user prefers. You can
pick your own preference as "default", but then in future installs,
leave the symlink if it already exists.

(This would be an appropriate use of the recently proposed
"alternatives" system, if we can agree on implementation and naming of
it ;-)