Re: Discussion about why GNU/Linux system upgrades cause old programs to break

"Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide" <[email protected]> Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:02:49 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.emacs.devel
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

<[email protected]> writes:
>> To avoid that can install a library explicitly
>> (e.g. via =apt-get install libpng-dev= for the dev headers of libpng)
>> then after an update, libpng-dev stays available.
>
> Typically there is more to that. Usually, different versions of a library
> are not co-installable in Debian. The newer version [1] replaces the older
> (there are exceptions, but that means having different packages for
> different versions of the library).

Yes, there’s nuance. For example I maintain a Java program that still
supports Java 8. I now have a debian oldstable VM with manual fudges to
keep the openjdk 8 (with icedtea) available. Using a more recent version
of Java to compile pulls in the wrong libraries so it’s not actually
Java 8 compatible.

That’s a pretty horrible situation and we have to increase the
requirement to Java 17 due to that, and separate out versions for
systems that do not have Java 17 yet. Which will get people stuck on old
versions to avoid breaking their systems.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
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heißt politisch sein,
ohne es zu merken.
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