Bug#761003: autopkgtest: @ shouldn't be satisfied by a virtual package

[Martin Pitt]

Niko Tyni [2014-09-10 23:23 +0300]:
> The dependencies seem to be currently satisfied by something like
>  [generate a dummy package with the right dependencies]
>  dpkg --unpack dummy package
>  apt-get -f install

Correct, as this will leave complicated dependency resolution to apt.

> Inserting an explicit 'apt-get install <package>' invocation should pull
> in the separate package even if it's already provided AFAICS?

If that will ignore provides, then that would be a plausible way for
the '@' part.  adt-run would then need to resolve architectures by
itself, though.  And we still need the adt-satdep dummy package / -f
install trick to install all the other test dependencies, as they can
contain arbitrarily complex constructions of alternatives,
architectures, version constraints, etc. I really want to avoid
reimplementing half of apt's resolver in autopkgtest :-)

I think I'll keep that idea on the shelf for now. I've heard Michael
Vogt talk about some possible improvements in apt to make it easier to
install local debs etc., so perhaps by the time we get versioned
provides (if we get them), apt will make this easier for us.

Thanks,

Martin
-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)