[gentoo-dev] Re: don't rely on dynamic deps

[Martin Vaeth <martin@mvath.de>]

Ciaran McCreesh <ciaran.mccreesh@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> User installs foo-1.1-r1
>> Developer makes foo-1.1-r2
>> foo-1.1* is removed from the tree
>> User syncs
>>
>> In fact, the result is completely the same

You completely ignored this essential point:
The result is completely the same, and you are
just arguing with a strawman.

But, OK, so I will use your strawman to prove
how static deps are broken:

>> What is *actually* broken here is that the user
>> has installed a package which is not maintained
>> anymore: *This* is what needs to be fixed.
>
> Uhm. That works just fine...

Not at all:

1. Some package depending on foo/bar is removed,
but the user keeps it, since deps are stored in /var/db.

2. foo/bar is split into foo/bar-A foo/bar-B
for whatever reasons. Of course, all maintained ebuilds
fix the dependency, and let us assume they are even
revbumped.

3. The orphaned package of course still depends on
installed foo/bar, causing all sort of blockers.

4. The user has no way for fixing the issue than
in modifying /var/db manually. He cannot even put
an ebuild into his overlay and only modify this
ebuild and the metadata, because the PM dumbly
insists on using only the (broken and outdated
since ages) information in /var/db

> I don't think you understand how this works:

Quite the opposite: I see that it fixes many issues.
It has also some issues with orphaned packages,
but *every* approach will have issues with orphaned
packages.