[oclug] Apt-get -- Order of package names matters?

[Richard Wayne]

List,

I just tried a "apt-get install mythweb" and it wanted to install apache2.

But I don't want to move from apache 1.33 at this time so I did the 
following: [Note the Depends: line]

> chinstrap:~# apt-cache show mythweb 
> Package: mythweb
> Priority: optional
> Section: web
> Installed-Size: 1312
> Maintainer: Matt Zimmerman <mdz at debian.org>
> Architecture: all
> Version: 0.17-2
> Depends: mythtv-common, apache2 | httpd, libapache2-mod-php4 | php4, php4-mysql
> Filename: dists/unstable/mythtv/binary-all/mythweb_0.17-2_all.deb
> Size: 350246
> MD5sum: 2ca8e2082e485e1d59332af487e818fe
> Description: Web interface add-on module for MythTV
>  MythWeb provides a web interface which can be used to view listings,
>  schedule recordings, delete recordings, and search for programs.
>  It can also browse mythmusic's music database, and may eventually
>  support playing music streams as well.
> Bugs: mailto:mdz at debian.org

Realizing that I already meet the "apache2 | httpd" but not the 
"libapache2-mod-php4 | php4" dependencies I tried "apt-get install 
mythweb php4" but it still wanted to install apache2!

After some puzzling on this I reversed the package names and it was happy.

> chinstrap:~# apt-get install php4 mythweb
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>   libapache-mod-php4 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libmysqlclient10
>   libmysqlclient12 libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client mysql-common
>   mythtv-common php4-common php4-mysql
> Suggested packages:
>   php4-pear phpdoc dbishell
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   libapache-mod-php4 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libmysqlclient10
>   libmysqlclient12 libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client mysql-common
>   mythtv-common mythweb php4 php4-common php4-mysql
> 0 upgraded, 14 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Need to get 15.9MB of archives.
> After unpacking 24.9MB of additional disk space will be used.

Should apt-get be sensitive to package name order on the command-line?

I'm not sure if this is serious or not. I'm just puzzled.

Rich