[tlug] Concerning circular dependencies in package based distros

[Amy & Don Johnson <amydonj@example.com>]

>From Don Johnson to G. Stewart and Dave MG; see below

On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 22:50:28 +0900, Dave M G <martin@example.com>
wrote:

  

I start to remove one of those files, and guess what,
language-support-ja depends on it, and so the circle is closed and I
can't get out.
    

Dave, I know this comment doesn't help you, but your current
predicament with circular dependencies is the main reason I cannot
abide package-based distros. You will run into the same problem with
any one of the dozens there are available, regardless of the package
management system they employ, be it apt, rpm, yum, whatever.

One of these days I'm going to write a document advocating source-based
distros. Would you allow me to use this posting of yours as an example
of why package-based distros can be so frustrating?

--
G. Stewart - godwin.stewart@example.com
  

I had a similar problem using yum to update the GLib packages. When I tried to update each package individually i.e. "yum update pckg1", "yum update pckg2", "yum update pckg3", I received circular dependency errors. However, when I tried "yum update pckg1 pckg2 pckg3", yum worked everything out. My distro is Fedora so I don't know if you will get the same results with the Debian package manager.

On the philosophical side, I think having to recompile everything is a pain in the a__ and love the way yum works.