[Python-Dev] Keyword meanings [was: Accept just PEP-0426] (original) (raw)

PJ Eby pje at telecommunity.com
Wed Dec 5 08:13:36 CET 2012

On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:43 PM, Daniel Holth <dholth at gmail.com> wrote:

How to use Obsoletes:

The author of B decides A is obsolete. A releases an empty version of itself that Requires: B B Obsoletes: A The package manager says "These packages are obsolete: A". Would you like to remove them? User says "OK".

Um, no. Even if the the author of A and B are the same person, you can't remove A if there are other things on the user's system using it. The above scenario does not work at all, ever, except in the case where B is simply an updated version of A (i.e. identical API) -- in which case, why bother? To change the project name? (Then it should be "Formerly-named" or something like that, not "Obsoletes".)

Please, please see the previous Catalog-SIG discussion I linked: this is only one of multiple metadata fields that were thoroughly debunked in that discussion as completely useless for automated dependency management.

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