Re: Package.el and specifying alternative dependencies

[Mark Oteiza <mvoteiza@udel.edu>]

Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> writes:

> Is there a way to specify alternative dependencies in a package?
>
> Situation: installing a package is resulting in an additional package being installed
> even though the dependencies for the package have already been satisfied by another
> package. This results in two packages being installed which provide overlapping
> functionality. 
>
> Example. I have installed org-plus-contrib. I then install elfeed-org, which has a
> dependency on org. This results in the org package being installed, but org is
> already installed as part of the org-plus-contrib package. 
>
> I'm trying to work out if this is a problem with how dependencies are defined in the
> elfeed-org package or is it a problem with how org-plus-conrib is specifying what
> dependency it satisfies? Need to know in order to determine where this issue needs to
> be logged.

IIUC, package.el figures out dependencies by package name, not by the
features it provides.  So, I think the answer to your question is no.