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apt package

How does apt-get choose which alternative when there are alternative dependencies?

Asked by mrantims

I understand that in the Depends: section of the deb control files, a package may specify alternative dependencies separated by '|' symbol to satisfy a single dependency. For example, if a package depends on java and in the Depends section we have openjdk-6-jre | sun-java6-jre, how can I force apt-get to install openjdk-6-jre provided that the system does not have either packages installed?

My question is, how does apt-get decides which one to install when there are alternatives? Does it use the same order as how they are specified in the depends line or is there a way to create a sort of a list using something similar to apt_preferences?

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Doug McMahon
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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

Which Ubuntu release is it, which package depends on sun java?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java
< Oracle (Sun) Java 6 is no longer available to be distributed by Ubuntu, because of license issues. >

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mrantims (mrantims) said : 		#2

It is just an example scenario, you can think of any two packages that are given as alternative to each other as a dependency for a package.

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Best Doug McMahon (mc3man) said : 		#3

In the case of an alternative(s) it will install the first listed that is available

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mrantims (mrantims) said : 		#4

Thanks Doug McMahon, that solved my question.