Mailhandler 6.x-2.x dependencies do not find correct feeds version

I don't think the dev is considered greater than.

If you want the dev, specify the dev as the release.

I think that would be

test_dependencies[] = feeds (6.x-1.x-dev)

What's going on here is that mailhandler_default.info specifies feeds as a dependency without any further restrictions.

A regular dependency trumps a test_dependency, so I believe that's what's going on.

I did rebuild and saw what you saw, so checked it out to look further.

If you have a regular unversioned dependencies[] on feeds *anywhere in any .info file* it will choose the recommended release. And if both dependencies[] and test_dependencies[] are found, then dependencies[] wins.

I *believe* dependency specification is a working feature in D6. Of course, what it does is to prevent enabling of a depending module if the dependency is not properly there.

I'll try to take a look at it this week. It is pretty hard to work on with without a d.o dump. Don't forget that begging feeds for a new release is an option for you.

I've spent a couple of sessions with this this week but don't have any traction yet. I have developed an easy way to use a local authoritative repo instead of using the d.o repo, so I can arbitrarily make commits to any project, so that's good. But haven't solved it yet.

At this point, when I give a (6.x-1.x-dev) version to feeds and feeds_ui, I end up with an *empty* array for the release that is to be loaded.

I hate to say it, but this is actually a misunderstanding about what drupal_parse_incompatibility() can actually do.

          // Drupal considers "2.x" to mean any version that begins with
          // "2" (e.g. 2.0, 2.9 are all "2.x"). PHP's version_compare(),
          // on the other hand, treats "x" as a string; so to
          // version_compare(), "2.x" is considered less than 2.0. This
          // means that >=2.x and <2.x are handled by version_compare()
          // as we need, but > and <= are not.

As a result of that, *any* 6.x-1.anything is considered to be compatible with the version string "6.x-1.x-dev". In your case, that means that 6.x-1.0-beta14 and every other 6.x-1.0-* release of feeds is compatible with "6.x-1.x-dev"

So I don't think there is a way to force a dev release by using version strings.

Now, there is an open question about what version to use by default. Currently we use the recommended release if possible, or the most recent release otherwise. I suspect that's the correct thing to do. But we could add code that would use the recommended release first, the dev release second, and the most recent otherwise. But that wouldn't help you at all.

The logic in project_dependency is below. I believe it would work right if the potential versions got sorted out right by the drupal_parse_dependency().

      // We choose to use the project of the most recently created release
      // node. This is not guaranteed, but is a heuristic. Is there another?
      $first_dependent_release = reset($possible_dependent_releases);
      $dependent_pid = $first_dependent_release->pid;
      $recommended_release = project_release_get_current_recommended($dependent_pid, $api_term->tid);

      // If we found a recommended release for this project and that release
      // also contains this component, accept it.
      if (!empty($recommended_release) && !empty($possible_dependent_releases[$recommended_release->nid])) {
        // Accept the recommended release for the project used.
        $release = $possible_dependent_releases[$recommended_release->nid];
      }
      else {
        // The recommended release does not contain the component, so just
        // punt and accept the first release that was found.
        $release = $first_dependent_release;
      }

@twistor is the very faithful maintainer of feeds. I recommend pinging him via the contact form to request a new version. I doubt he'll delay.

Project Dependency or core ... but not DrupalCI.

And possibly already resolved. Sending to Project_Dependency to find out.

Project Dependency just calls drupal_check_incompatibility()in order to be consistent with core. This just calls PHP's version_compare(). So open up a place where you can put some PHP test code and with the devel project. Start with the following:

dpm(version_compare('6.x-1.0', '6.x-1.1', '<'));

The result is TRUE. So let's try 6.x-1.x:

dpm(version_compare('6.x-1.0', '6.x-1.x', '<'));

which returns FALSE. If we switch this to the less obvious

dpm(version_compare('6.x-1.x', '6.x-1.0', '<'));

So, if you want to require the dev version you should

dependencies[] = feeds (<6.x-1.0)

or

dependencies[] = feeds (6.x-1.x)