[arch-general] pacman optional package messages on update

[Leonid Isaev]

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:00:28 +0000
mike cloaked <mike.cloaked at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recently there have been some (slightly) confusing output lines running
> pacman -Syu.
> 
> This evening I see:
> 
> New optional dependencies for logrotate
>     cron: scheduled log rotation
> 
> However:
> [root at lapmike3 ~]# pacman -Q cron
> error: package 'cron' was not found
> 
> But of course:
> [root at lapmike3 ~]# pacman -Q cronie
> cronie 1.4.8-3
> 
> So presumably I do not need to try to pacman -S cron !!
> 
> Similarly the other day there was an optional dependency of python3 when in
> fact presumably the package name is "python" but happens to be version 3?
> (which for me was already installed)
> 
> Just a point for clarification - especially for new users who may be a bit
> confused by the output and take inappropriate action as a result!
> 

pacman -Qi cronie
...
Provides: cron
...

So, cron is a 'generic' name for dcron, fcron, cronie, ... cronie is simply
arch's default. Calling pacman -S cron is ambiguous since there are multiple
packages in the repo providing 'cron'. Similarly, exim and postfix both
provide smtp-server.

HTH,

-- 
Leonid Isaev
GnuPG key: 0x164B5A6D
Fingerprint: C0DF 20D0 C075 C3F1 E1BE  775A A7AE F6CB 164B 5A6D
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