On Lu, 16 iul 12, 15:50:06, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Andrei POPESCU writes ("Bug#681783: Are Recommends really important (especially for metapackages)?"):
> > Package: tech-ctte
>
> These questions seems rather abstract to me. I would rather deal with
> them iff they turn out to be relevant to an actual specific package or
> package(s). Are you referring to the discussion surrounding
> gnome-core and network-manager ?
>
> If you would like the TC to make a ruling on that specific question
> then I'm sure we'd be happy to do so.
I am on purpose trying to avoid any specific issue, as I believe at this
time there are too many in the archive and it would be unproductive for
all parties involved.
> > Following the big sub-thread "Recommends for metapackages" on
> > debian-devel[1] I would like to submit following questions to you as per
> > Debian Constitution 6.1, item 5 ("Offer advice"). Examples below are not
> > meant to request specific decision(s) from your side or even to point
> > fingers at any one package Maintainer (DD or not), but to better explain
> > what I think is a more general problem that you could address.
>
> I don't think it would be a good idea for the TC to formally offer
> such abstract advice, at least in this case. The result would seem to
> be likely to be arguments over the interpretation of our advice.
If by "this case" you mean gnome-core and network-manager, then by all
means, delay any ruling until the spirits have settled (this is why I
mentioned after the release) :)
> But I'm happy to give my personal opinion:
>
> > 1. Is running a system with Recommends turned off a supported
> > configuration?
>
> I would say that "yes it is supported" but that violating a Recommends
> may result in unexpected or less favourable behaviour.
>
> Ie, I think a maintainer is at liberty to close bug reports resulting
> from violated Recommends with "don't do that then", providing that the
> failure mode is reasonable.
I completely agree. However, maintainers may not want to expose
themselves to a flood of bugs triggered by some missing un-essential
functionality[1]. It might help them more if for example all Debian
documentation was amended first to discourage disabling Recommends.
Before starting any work on this I'd rather have a "go" from you.
[1] I have argued this myself on debian-user on the occasion of Xorg ->
hal controversy.
Kind regards,
Andrei
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