Comment 2 for bug 839098

On Thu, 2011-09-01 at 21:25 +0000, Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> libindicator (0.3.93-0ubuntu2) oneiric; urgency=low
>
> * Drop the Breaks: against old versions of libindicator and libindicator3;
> there are no file conflicts between the libraries, so this doesn't
> accurately reflect the package relationships but does make it harder to
> calculate upgrades from natty. LP: #839098.
> -- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:22:12 -0700

The problem is that since libindicator is the interface between the
indicator loader (unity-panel-service, indicator-applet, etc.) and the
actual indicators (indicator-messages, indicator-session, etc.) you
really only want one version of that interface installed.

What ends up happening is since the indicators are installed in a
different directory depending on the ABI version, the loader won't load
them, and thus you could end up with a desktop where you couldn't log
out. Or, worse yet, easily control your music player.

In the end, if there were a "highlander" directive that we could ensure
there was only one we'd use that, but manually using Breaks is the only
solution we could come up with. It seems to me apt should be able to
handle this situation.

  --Ted