Re: Bug#30739: When a tiny part of a package uses non-free libraries

[Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>]

I wrote:

> As Michael Meskes has since posted, the problem appears to be a
> very different interpretation of what dependencies mean.  I guess
> policy needs to be clarified in this respect (because I wasn't
> the only one to have a different interpretation than Michael).

Well, as much as I _hate_ this:

http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/packaging.html/ch-relationships.html#8

  When selecting which level of dependency to use you should consider
  how important the depended-on package is to the functionality of the
  one declaring the dependency. Some packages are composed of components
  of varying degrees of importance. Such a package should list using
  Depends the package(s) which are required by the more important
  components. The other components' requirements may be mentioned as
  Suggestions or Recommendations, as appropriate to the components'
  relative importance.

Note that the above says nothing about a dependency which would force
something into contrib.  Perhaps this sounds harsh, but would Michael
_not_ have downgraded the libforms dependency to `suggests' if
libforms had been in main instead of non-free?

I wrote:

> I liked to point out [to people] that Debian dependencies make sure
> that every installed binary works, but Michael's interpretation
> of the dependencies (if he's correct) means that this is not
> true.

This means that he's correct and that what I always thought about
Debian packages is false:  Dependency _don't_ guarantee that every
installed binary will work.

Peter <psg@debian.org>