Re: the Recommends control field
On 10119 March 1977, Michael Spang wrote:
>> Unless we split the functionality such that we have both, I think you're
>> correct. I know for sure we can't do away with the technical recommends.
>> I'd rather we separate the social one (or kill it altogether) so that we can
>> finally fix apt-get and stop the annoying bug reports of people who do not
>> even KNOW they are not supposed to ignore a technical recommends unless they
>> Really Know Better.
> I too believe that recommends are taken too lightly. This is why I can't
> accept a package manager which automatically selects recommends; I get
> way too many unneeded packages that way. I think the policy manual makes
> it pretty clear that recommends are to be for packages without which the
> package would be pretty useless.
You perfectly describe Depends.
Depends is used if the package in the D: is needed for the package to do
anything useful in any case.
Recommends is, if the recommended package is needed for most of the
cases where these package gets used, not for all.
(And Suggests is for "in some cases it would be nice to have").
And - everything that doesnt need to be on the same host, like databases
for example, is for sure no Depends. :)
Package would be useless without them..
--
bye Joerg
<wiggy> "Memory is like gasoline. You use it up when you are running. Of
<wiggy> course you get it all back when you reboot..."; Actual explanation
<wiggy> obtained from the Micro$oft help desk.
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