ubuntu-java team mailing list archive

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 10:04:23PM -0000, clacke wrote:
> I was just playing devil's advocate with myself and trying to understand
> why one would want to depend on a package or meta-package instead of a
> virtual dependency. And it certainly is the case that different
> implementations differ in how well the implement the APIs and how much
> they implement.

Build-depending on a virtual package means that apt will pick one
essentially at random (of course it *is* deterministic, but the
algorithm is not defined and apt is within its rights to change it at
any time).

Using a metapackage means that the Java maintainers can define
unambiguously and centrally which JDK should be used to build packages,
rather than relying on an undefined algorithm to pick one.

There are many good uses for virtual packages, but in this case a
metapackage is more appropriate.

-- 
Inconsistent 'Provides' for different java compilers/runtimes
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/189953
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