From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1QKHbG-0007OB-4q for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 11 May 2011 22:09:46 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 061371C043; Wed, 11 May 2011 22:08:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-qy0-f181.google.com (mail-qy0-f181.google.com [209.85.216.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C74F01C043 for ; Wed, 11 May 2011 22:08:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: by qyg14 with SMTP id 14so556008qyg.19 for ; Wed, 11 May 2011 15:08:07 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from :date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:to:content-type; bh=lD3eOAWS/LGrm01IDicAuLJSiaSTpQhFQHg/qn1NWCs=; b=ERcxmYsNl9Q0bVJqZiKGaIrm029rsXWSTlDVtC5zFjH4dMe98jA+5pvC00CojbxNev NP8+sexA+p5RGNkYdYPU5uRFw2VTgGBigXELebxLdpw/USvUaQ+nJb8mhe+vPSK7gDm+ W+8fthk3HhTjDu47v1RNjmuJfOk/vGR6Rr+Rg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:to:content-type; b=K6FVDxfAq5aqWk8Z01qMHpVysA8MWk00OygZAkBBz9eF26TEsf/N9qSeQlsvbQ0yNO EBwy+uUpM0T75rjHGRM5iS6g/9UtdURMTLqswxMMPWwLeQ633rB8oDONOLlk6T2k9LnP ygNdJpjCs6tpQJAbweuKPUv038UD2IHBqKGGw= Received: by 10.229.63.74 with SMTP id a10mr7690140qci.232.1305151687241; Wed, 11 May 2011 15:08:07 -0700 (PDT) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: paul.hartman@gmail.com Received: by 10.229.111.71 with HTTP; Wed, 11 May 2011 15:07:47 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20110511224326.58bd1cb7@november> References: <20110511224326.58bd1cb7@november> From: Paul Hartman Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 17:07:47 -0500 X-Google-Sender-Auth: XT7xwCws4jJZlfL0LqIvKBun6XY Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Virtual Packages To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: cc752c31a3e9d4feb865dc4f50baf5a1 On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM, John wrote: > > Have noticed that some packages require virtual packages to installed > as well. For example when installing dev-db/mysql, virtual/mysql is > installed as well. > > What are the purposes of these "virtual" packages?? I think it is usually when there are alternatives available which can fit the dependency. For example, you could use MySQL or MariaDB to satisfy virtual/mysql dependency. That way the alternatives can be defined once in the virtual package, rather than in every single package that uses MySQL.