Re: Dependencies of -dbg and -doc packages

[Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org>]

Stephen Leake wrote:
> Ludovic Brenta <ludovic@ludovic-brenta.org> writes:
> 
>> In the course of investigating the upgrade process of Ada packages from
>> Lenny to Squeeze, I had to install all Ada packages in Lenny to begin
>> with.
>>
>> The way I did was by looking at all the packages that Depend: on
>> gnat-4.3;
> 
> Using something like:
> 
> aptitude search "?depends(gnat-4.3)" 
> 
> ?

No, I used the low-tech approach: in the interactive screen of aptitude,
I typed /^gnat-4.3, hit ENTER on the package, then scrolled down to
"Packages depending on gnat-4.3".  My goal is to make it easy for
Ada programmers using only aptitude or synaptic, who do not necessarily
know all about Debian, to discover which packages are available for
our favorite languate.

[...]
> apt-rdepends -r gnat-4.3

Thanks, I was unaware of this tool until now.

>> Indeed, the human administrator must navigate from gnat-4.3 to the
>> -dev package, then to the shared library package, and only then to the
>> -dbg package; and then repeat the whole process for each -dev package
>> that depends on gnat-4.3. I would like to propose:
>>
>> Rule: the -dbg package SHALL depend on the exact version of the
>> corresponding -dev package.
>>
>> While not absolutely required to get a stack trace, the -dev package is
>> certainly necessary for any kind of source-level debugging; so the
>> dependency seems to make sense.  We could relax it to just Recommends:
>> though.
> 
> I don't think we need this.

Depends on who "we" are; if "we" are experienced, tech-savvy people like
yourself then you are right.  If "we" have just switched to Debian because
of hearsay about the quality of Ada packages in Debian, then "we" need a
way to navigate the list of packages interactively to discover everything
available.  So, I stand by my opinion that "we" need some sort of
dependency.  I agree with Jacob that Recommends: is enough in this case.

There is another problem with your approach.  Suppose I do:

aptitude install $(apt-rdepend -r gnat-4.3)

then I get all Ada packages installed all right, but no package is marked
as "installed automatically"; as a result, removing e.g. a -dev package
will not remove the shared library package.  This in turn makes future
upgrades slightly more problematic.

>> I am pondering whether the -dev package should also Suggest: or
>> Recommend:
>> the -dbg package(s).  
> 
> No; we should assume that people doing Ada work on Debian are familiar
> with general Debian packaging policy, and the Ada policy in particular.

I don't think that's a reasonable assumption.  For starters, the Debian
Policy for Ada is not even a package in Debian.  I think I'll upload it
eventually, though.  But I'd like Debian to be attractive to beginners
and seasoned developers alike.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.