Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: python packages

[Jon Turney <jon.turney@dronecode.org.uk>]

On 07/03/2021 20:44, Ken Brown via Cygwin wrote:
> On 3/7/2021 2:34 PM, Marco Atzeri via Cygwin wrote:
>> On 07.03.2021 17:58, Ken Brown via Cygwin wrote:
>>
>>>> I have a CI job which runs 'setup -q -P python3,python3-lxml'.  It's 
>>>> nice if that gets me something where "python3 -c 'import lxml'" 
>>>> works, and doesn't require changing every time the default python 
>>>> version is updated.
>>>
>>> Currently python3 is a meta-package whose main purpose is to require 
>>> the default python version (currently python38).  Marco, couldn't you 
>>> just make python3-foo a meta-package that requires the corresponding 
>>> python*-foo (currently python38-foo)?
>>
>> the issue is that Cygport creates the "obsolete" python3-foo
>> that is replaced by python36-foo automatically.
>>
>> we should change cygport to use python38 instead
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> $ cat python3-lxml/python3-lxml-4.6.2-1.hint
>> category: _obsolete
>> requires: python36-lxml
>> sdesc: "Obsoleted by python36-lxml"
>> ldesc: "The python3-lxml package is obsolete.  Selecting this package for
>> installation will cause the python36-lxml package, which replaces this
>> one, to be installed instead."
>> external-source: python-lxml
>> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> As long as you have to patch cygport anyway, maybe it would be better to 
> have cygport create an empty (but not obsolete) package.  I think users 
> might find it confusing that they have to install an obsolete package to 
> get what they want.  Also, obsolete packages are normally hidden in the 
> setup UI.

Yeah.

I've wanted to improve how things in this area for a while (since there 
are some checks which calm does for 'should this package be obsolete') 
which are thwarted by this kind of package.

So, I've added 'Virtual' to the list of package categories that calm 
permits, if you want to use it for this kind of meta-package.