Defining Package Dependencies

You need to determine whether your package has dependencies on other packages and if any other packages depend on yours. Package dependencies and incompatibilities can be defined with two of the optional package information files, compver and depend.

Delivering a compver file lets you name previous versions of your package that are compatible with the package being installed.

Delivering a depend file lets you define three types of dependencies associated with your package. These dependency types are as follows:

• A prerequisite package – Your package depends on the existence of another package

• A reverse dependency – Another package depends on the existence of your package

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  Note –

  Use the reverse dependency type only when a package that cannot deliver a depend file relies on your package.

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• An incompatible package – Your package is incompatible with the named package

The depend file resolves only very basic dependencies. If your package depends upon a specific file, its contents, or its behavior, the depend file does not supply adequate precision. In this case, a request script or the checkinstall script should be used for detailed dependency checking. The checkinstall script is also the only script capable of cleanly halting the package installation process.

Be certain that your depend and compver files have entries in the prototype file. The file type should be i (for package information file).

Refer to the depend(4) and compver(4) man pages for more information.