Build-Depends: some-virtual-package (not stating any real package)

[Ian Jackson]

Colin Watson writes ("Re: Build-Depends: some-virtual-package (not stating any real package)"):
> I'm curious as to whether gdebi / apt-get build-dep handle the case
> where the target source package build-depends on a package which in turn
> depends on a virtual package without a real alternative. If policy ought
> to be changed, that might influence whether it should be changed just
> for build-dependencies or for all packages.

I don't see any particular reason why build-dependencies are special.

> For the sake of getting on with autopkgtest deployment, this seems a
> reasonable thing to enforce in Ubuntu at least for build-dependencies.

autopkgtest is quite happy breaking lots of other packages in the
meantime so this question isn't critical for me right now :-).

Ian.