On Tue, Oct 04, 2011 at 10:07:43PM +1100, James Harper wrote:
I want to install libvirt-bin under Debian, but it depends on libxenstore3.0 and I don't want it installed because I already have xen installed (built from source) and installing the debian version breaks it.
BTW, what exactly is xenstore-utils? i just filed a bug against the package yesterday (Bug#644125) because the package description is useless (all it says is "This package contains the Xenstore utilities." - well, duh!)
What are my options? I can think of:
1. rebuild the libvirt-bin and remove the dependency (easy enough, but the next upgrade of libvirt-bin will break it)
that's why 3. below is the usual method.
2. force package installation (not even sure I can do this anymore)
you can, but it's almost always a really bad idea.
3. create a dummy libxenstore3.0 package
that's the usual way of doing it. there was (or still is) a package that would auto-generate dummy packages for this purpose. can't remember what it was called (i thought it was called dummy or something like that), and can't find it with apt-cache search. OTOH, it's trivial to make a dummy package so you don't really need a special tool for the job. if you want an example, just download the source for one of the transition packages, and modify to suit - they're just dummy packages for when a package gets renamed, they just satisfy dependancies during the transition (and, optionally, depend upon the new renamed pkgs).
with a high enough version that nothing can ever upgrade it
be careful of this, some pkgs depend on package foo version >= x and <= y. probably simpler to just hold the package (with dpkg-hold, aptitude hold, or whatever your favourite pkg holding tool is). Finally, there's also: 4. make your own xen packages from source (maybe patch/update the debianised ones?) so you don't end up with unmanaged cruft in /usr/local or /opt or wherever. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #52: Smell from unhygienic janitorial staff wrecked the tape heads