Re: Bug#139185: dict-gcide: Build-Depends-Indep: dictd

[Bob Hilliard <hilliard@debian.org>]

Daniel Schepler <schepler@math.berkeley.edu> writes:

> Package: dict-gcide
> Version: 0.44-2
> Severity: normal
> 
> Without the dictzip program present in the dictd package, the
> resulting package is much larger than if dictzip is available.

     (Bug # 139189, against dict-wn, is identical to this report.)

     I don't believe this is a bug.  If dictzip is available on the
build system, the database is uncompressed; if it is not available the
database is not compressed, but the resulting database is fully
usable.  Policy Section 7.6 says:

     A source package may declare a dependency or a conflict on a binary
     package, indicating which packages are required to be present on the
     system in order to build the binary packages from the source package.
     This is done with the control file fields `Build-Depends',
     `Build-Depends-Indep', `Build-Conflicts' and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'.

     I believe it would be a policy violation to list a
Build-Depends-Indep: that is not required.  In this case a
Build-Recommends-Indep or Build-Suggests-Indep' would be appropriate,
but policy does not provide for those fields.  Perhaps you should
file a policy proposal providing for such fields.

     I request comments from the developers on the validity of this
bug report.

Bob
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