On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 2:43 PM, Daniel Holth <dholth@gmail.com> wrote:
How to use Obsoletes:
The author of B decides A is obsolete.
A releases an empty version of itself that Requires: B
B Obsoletes: A
The package manager says "These packages are obsolete: A". Would you like to remove them?
User says "OK".
Um, no. Even if the the author of A and B are the same person, you can't remove A if there are other things on the user's system using it. The above scenario does not work *at all*, ever, except in the case where B is simply an updated version of A (i.e. identical API) -- in which case, why bother? To change the project name? (Then it should be "Formerly-named" or something like that, not "Obsoletes".) Please, *please* see the previous Catalog-SIG discussion I linked: this is only one of multiple metadata fields that were thoroughly debunked in that discussion as completely useless for automated dependency management.