Re: -data packages and recommends?

[Gerfried Fuchs <rhonda@deb.at>]

* Alexander Schmehl <tolimar@debian.org> [2008-02-14 00:17:03 CET]:
> Just noticed, that we are quite inconsequenz regarding our -data
> packages.  Some of them depends on their binary counterpart (e.g.
> warzone2100), some of them don't (e.g. adanaxisgpl).
> 
> I think that makes much more sense for the -data (or music) package to
> recommend the binary package, so I'm going to change (maybe tomorrow,
> when I'm done with bdefreese sponsoring...)  Any comments?

 It's a tricky business. Some depends might be needed to have some sort
of feature compatibility chain between the actual binaries and the data
files, especially when they are built from different sources.

 Technically the best would be to have an Enhances: set in the -data
package, but that's not supported at all in any package tool out there
that I'm aware of. And actually installing the -data package without the
binary package doesn't make the best sense anyway.

 So yes, Recommends should be a save call in most of the situations, but
don't do it blindly.

 So long,
Rhonda