how to have yum prefer one dependency over others

[Matyas Selmeci]

Matthew Garrett wrote on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 05:00:28PM +0100:
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:51:26AM -0500, Matyas Selmeci wrote:
> > Kevin Kofler wrote on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 01:02:26PM +0200:
> > > Michael Schroeder wrote:
> > > > Sounds like you want weak dependencies (i.e. "Suggests" et al).
> > > 
> > > In this case, I think disjunctive dependencies (default | virtual), as 
> > > Matthew Garrett pointed out, are the right solution, not soft dependencies 
> > > (though those would also be nice).
> > > 
> > >         Kevin Kofler
> > Functionally speaking, what is the difference between a soft dependency
> > and a disjunctive dependency? How can you satisfy a soft dependency if
> > you don't know what virtual dependency it is being used to provide?
> 
> If we have:
> 
> Requires: phonon-backend
> Suggests: phonon-backend-gstreamer
> 
> What would you expect the outcome to be on a system that has 
> phonon-backend-xine? I'd have thought that phonon-backend-gstreamer 
> would get installed, even if you can later remove it. That's not the 
> desired outcome.

I see. So 'Suggests' means it gets automatically installed (unless it
explicitly conflicts with something already install I presume?), but
can be removed without breaking the package it was brought in for
(unless no other package provides the phonon-backend dependency).
Do I have that right?

-Matyas