@jspricke I couldn't find libcurl-dev on either package.debian.org or packages.ubuntu.com, could you clarify where you found those packages names ?

Here you go:https://packages.debian.org/stretch/libcurl-dev https://packages.ubuntu.com/de/xenial/libcurl-dev

oh interesting that the search doesn't return virtual packages o_O. Thanks for the links.
I think that virtual packages are now handled by rosdep so this shouldn't be a blocker for the change. I'll let @tfoote and @dirk-thomas review this though.

It does look like this is a problem. I think we resolved the virtual package checks but it doesn't appear that we've resolved the install side issues:

This is what rosdep would have run:

tfoote@snowman:~ Last: [0] (1s Seconds)
$ rosdep install -s resource_retriever --reinstall
#[apt] Installation commands:
  sudo -H apt-get install python-rospkg
  sudo -H apt-get install ros-kinetic-rosconsole
  sudo -H apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev
  sudo -H apt-get install curl
  sudo -H apt-get install ros-kinetic-roslib
  sudo -H apt-get install ros-kinetic-catkin

I tweaked it to use the new rule and it failed to install.

tfoote@snowman:~ Last: [0] (0s Seconds)
$ sudo -H apt-get install libcurl-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package libcurl-dev is a virtual package provided by:
  libcurl4-openssl-dev 7.47.0-1ubuntu2.2
  libcurl4-nss-dev 7.47.0-1ubuntu2.2
  libcurl4-gnutls-dev 7.47.0-1ubuntu2.2
You should explicitly select one to install.

E: Package 'libcurl-dev' has no installation candidate

We've previously tried the same: #57 but had to revert #58

It looks like we haven't resolved being able to install.

I think ros-infrastructure/rosdep#274 needs to be reopened wrt to installing.

I have implemented support for this in ros-infrastructure/rosdep#521 and tested it with this PR: https://gist.github.com/ipa-mdl/401f74bff9bfe64fd359c4593c4e3797

What is the status of this PR?

Works with ros-infrastructure/rosdep#585

rosdep should now handle this properly.

@tfoote Cas you please give this another try with the rosdep problem resolved.

Could this change be the reason for the following job starting to fail? http://build.ros.org/view/Mdev/job/Mdev__rc_visard__ubuntu_bionic_amd64/4/console

Yes, that logic block is going to need to become aware of the virtual package logic as it looks to be implementing it in parallel.
A package from that repo is actually the test case used in https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/rosdep/pull/585/files

What is the status on this?

I went ahead and reverted the change in #18223.