On Mon, Aug 11, 2003 at 12:25:55PM +0200, Gabor Nagy wrote: > Steve Langasek wrote: > > 99% of our users are going to want to send outgoing mail from their > > mailreader. A package that contains multiple binaries must depend on > > every library those binaries link against, even if a particular library > > is only needed by one seldom-used application to provide functionality > > that a small fraction of users would consider useful. If that's a > > dependency, why would an MTA not be a dependency? At the packaging > > level, the two situations are analogous: in both cases, the packages are > > usable for /some/ activities without the dependency in question. > For me package A should depend on package B if it cannot be used without > the other. Like A is linked against B, so starting A will get a library > not found error message. You missed the point. A package may contain multiple programs; libfoo may be needed by one program in the package, but not by all the others. I can run most of the programs in the package without libfoo installed; therefore the package is usable. Does this mean the package should not Depend: on libfoo? -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
Attachment:
pgpN25LjHTqRe.pgp
Description: PGP signature