I'm in the process of creating a .deb package of our Java-based application (see this superuser-question). I'm now using following dependency information:

Depends: java-runtime-headless (>= 1.6)

Recommends: openjdk-7-jre-headless, ...

Now I'm trying to install it:

$ sudo dpkg -i MYAPP.deb 

Selecting previously unselected package MYAPP.

(Reading database ... 140874 files and directories currently installed.)

Unpacking MYAPP (from MYAPP.deb) ...

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of MYAPP:

 MYAPP depends on java-runtime-headless (>= 1.6); however:

  Package java-runtime-headless is not installed.

dpkg: error processing MYAPP (--install):

 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...

Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...

Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...

Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...

Errors were encountered while processing:

 MYAPP

$

OK, I'm trying to install the dependency:

$ sudo apt-get install java-runtime-headless

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

Package java-runtime-headless is a virtual package provided by:

  openjdk-7-jre-headless 7u25-2.3.10-1ubuntu0.12.04.2

  openjdk-6-jre-headless 6b27-1.12.6-1ubuntu0.12.04.2

  gcj-jre-headless 4:4.6.3-1ubuntu5

  gcj-4.6-jre-headless 4.6.3-1ubuntu2

  default-jre-headless 1:1.6-43ubuntu2

You should explicitly select one to install.



E: Package 'java-runtime-headless' has no installation candidate

OK, I chose one of these packages:

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre-headless

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

 openjdk-7-jre-headless : Depends: openjdk-7-jre-lib (= 7u25-2.3.10-1ubuntu0.12.04.2) but it is not going to be installed

                          Depends: ca-certificates-java but it is not going to be installed

                          Depends: tzdata-java (>= 2012e-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) but it is not going to be installed

                          Depends: java-common (>= 0.28) but it is not going to be installed

                          Depends: libnss3-1d (>= 3.12.9+ckbi-1.82-0ubuntu4) but it is not going to be installed

                          Recommends: icedtea-7-jre-jamvm (= 7u25-2.3.10-1ubuntu0.12.04.2) but it is not going to be installed

 MYAPP : Depends: java-runtime-headless (>= 1.6)

         Recommends: mercurial but it is not going to be installed

E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Now it only suggests me to remove my application:

$ sudo apt-get -f install

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

Correcting dependencies... Done

The following packages will be REMOVED:

  MYAPP

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 3 not upgraded.

1 not fully installed or removed.

After this operation, 41.0 MB disk space will be freed.

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n

Abort.

$ 

It looks like I first need to install the dependency (openjdk-7-jre-headless) and then my application. How a normal user should understand that? Or is there a better way to install MYAPP.deb?