Re: Bug#88307: Netbase needs to not depend on not-necessarily-needed packages.
On 5 Mar 2001, Brian May wrote:
> >>>>> "Sam" == Sam TH <sam@uchicago.edu> writes:
>
> Sam> In the pre/postinst, this is a bad idea, for all the reasons
> Sam> you describe. But "dynamic dependencies" which change based
> Sam> on your current configuration, are a really good idea. This
> Sam> subject came up in the discussion of dpkg-dev-el a little
> Sam> while back.
>
> Sam> Imagine if we had, for dpkg-dev Reccomends: (dpkg-dev-el IF
> Sam> emacs-common)
>
> Sam> or some similar synatax. This allows dpkg/apt to calculate
> Sam> the dependencies, but still allows for the kind of
> Sam> flexibility you need. For the kernel, too many people don't
> Sam> use make-kpkg for this to work. But for other packages, it
> Sam> could provide a real benifit.
>
> I am still not convinced (no real reason), but agree that would be
> much better.
>
> (sidenote: although apt-get doesn't look at recommends, or has this
> changed now?)
Recommends:, from what I'm able to figure out, is more intended for the
sysadmin than the package handling tools. It notifies the sysadmin that
you _really_ should consider installing that package, but it'll work
without it.
Of course, when apt-get is being called in an interactive manner (isn't
apt-get always interactive..?), then it could print a warning message or
something -- EXCEPT if you are using `dselect-upgrade' which implies that
you were using dselect (which would have warned you already, so you don't
need to be bothered again).
Regards,
Alex.
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