No Upgrades by uninstalling anything else

[Gustavo Niemeyer]

Hello,

> I haven´t told smart to upgrade x264, i just did a 
> smart upgrade --update
> 
> Now, smart should see that the new x264 is incompatible with other
> packages which are allready installed.  Not the other packages are
> incompatible to the new, and that´s why 

It doesn't really matter which package conflicts with each
one. Conflicting is always bilateral. There's no additional
information saying which side is "better".

> This is what apt did in those cases.

Not really. APT has an upgrade mode which allows upgrading only
if there are no removes involved. This is a lot simpler.

> Apt was keeping back new packages if they don´t fit to the rest, 
> untill everything else is present in a new version to, so we can 
> upgrade all packages.
> The only way to install anything, which would cause to uninstall 
> anything else, was tosay <apt install x264>
> But a simple upgrade would have never uninstall anything just 
> because of a single lib which i now present in a newer version

This is really a matter of choice. I'd prefer to be aware that
making an upgrade would be possible if a few old packges were
uninstalled. This doesn't mean I'll confirm the whole operation
as is no matter what, but I'll at least check out to see what's
going on, and why removing these packages is needed. Occasionally
(e.g. security issues) I may want to drop other things in favor
of the new package immediately.

This doesn't mean I don't support your desire to be able to say
"upgrade only if no removes". This is a trivial option that Smart
should have long ago. I'll implement it for 0.43.

-- 
Gustavo Niemeyer
http://niemeyer.net