Re: Bug#99835: seemingly useless and ill-conceived "meta" packages
On 3.VI.2001 at 19:04 Joey Hess wrote:
>
> What is the purpose of these packages?
meta-magicfilter installs magicfilter and all filters it need.
Magicfilter is usable without them installed and thats why it doesn't
require them. On the other side a good task `Printing' must install all
needed filters.
> [ These packages appear to be used by task-printing, which was newly added
> to the archive -- it seems you also don't know that task packages will
> not be used for woody...
I know about that task packages are going to be obsoleted by Task: field
and that's why I made meta-magicfilter and meta-apsfilter. The
maintainer of recode doesn't have to know that recode is used by some
filters of magicfilter. Why he has to know that his package is relevant
to task `Printing'? And why he has to know that some future version of
magicfilter don't use recode any more? That's why in my opinion the
task `Printing' should install meta-magicfilter but not directly
magicfilter and supporting filters.
> If you want to work on the existing print-server task that is in
> tasksel, talk to Anthony Towns and myself.]
I didn't know about task `Print Server'. Look at task-printing and get
whatever you think is appropriate. If you want and you need help I will
help.
For the source package task-printing I see two possibilities:
1. I remove the binary package task-pringint, but left meta-magicfilter
and you use meta-magicfilter in your task `Print Server'.
2. I send a bugreport to ftp.debian.org to remove task-printing from the
archive.
> Have you communicated with the authors of those packages at all?
No. I didn't know what do you think about these metapackages. On the
other side I had submitted an ITP for task-printing and I decided that
it is better for task-printing to depend on meta-magicfilter than
directly on magicfilter and other filters. And I didn't know that you
had made task `Print Server'.
> Even weirder, meta-magicfilter and meta-apsfilter do not actually depend
> on magicfilter and apsfilter!
Oops! That is realy a bug.
Anton Zinoviev, zinoviev@debian.org
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