Re: [PR PATCH] [Updated] Manual.md: expand description of virtual packages

[ahesford <ahesford@users.noreply.github.com>]

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There is an updated pull request by ahesford against master on the void-packages repository

https://github.com/ahesford/void-packages docs
https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/21990

Manual.md: expand description of virtual packages
Please check my expanded description of virtual packages for correctness. I thought the concept could use a bit more clarity.

A patch file from https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/21990.patch is attached

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From 89ac5e5debe8cea02b8af384fa41f8c649710531 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Andrew J. Hesford" <ajh@sideband.org>
Date: Fri, 15 May 2020 13:19:26 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] Manual.md: expand description of virtual packages

---
 Manual.md | 14 ++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Manual.md b/Manual.md
index 576b3d2032e..f6c6f457451 100644
--- a/Manual.md
+++ b/Manual.md
@@ -1162,10 +1162,16 @@ Dependencies declared via `${depends}` are not installed to the master directory
 only checked if they exist as binary packages, and are built automatically by `xbps-src` if
 the specified version is not in the local repository.
 
-There's a special variant of how `virtual` dependencies can be specified as `runtime dependencies`
-and is by using the `virtual?` keyword, i.e `depends="virtual?vpkg-0.1_1"`. This declares
-a `runtime` virtual dependency to `vpkg-0.1_1`; this `virtual` dependency will be simply ignored
-when the package is being built with `xbps-src`.
+As a special case, `virtual` dependencies may be specified as runtime dependencies in the
+`${depends}` template variable. Several different packages can provide common functionality by
+declaring a virtual name and version in the `${provides}` template variable (e.g.,
+`provides="vpkg-0.1_1"`). Packages that rely on the common functionality without concern for the
+specific provider can declare a dependency on the virtual package name with the prefix `virtual?`
+(e.g., `depends="virtual?vpkg-0.1_1"`). When a package is built by `xbps-src`, providers for any
+virtual packages will be confirmed to exist and will be built if necessary. A map from virtual
+packages to their default providers is defined in `etc/default.virtual`. Individual mappings can be
+overridden by local preferences in `etc/virtual`. Comments in `etc/default.virtual` provide more
+information on this map.
 
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