Re: the Recommends control field

[Jens Peter Secher <jps@debian.org>]

Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> writes:

> Ben Burton wrote:
>
>> In some cases (such as the examples above) the -data package is used by
>> many smaller packages, not just one.  Both koffice and kdeedu are empty
>> metapackages that depend on several smaller applications, most of which
>> require these common -data packages.  If reverse dependencies were
>> added, then (for instance) installing kword would result in having to
>> install all of koffice.
>
> A correct way to add reverse dependencies in such a case, if you want
> to do so, is to OR them or depend on a virtual package.

But that requires the data package (in case of OR'ing the reverse
dependencies) or the virtual package to always keep up with whomever is
using the data package, which is not very practical, especially because
it means having to upload new versions of the data package when the
reverse dependencies change.

If the reverse dependencies are not kept up to date, the data package
will never be removed after a user installs the new BurningEagleOffice
package, since BurningEagleOffice is not listed in the reverse
dependencies for the data package.

So, anyway you cut it, if you want automatic cleanup, there must be a
mechanism for garbage-collecting packages that are not needed anymore.
And that is exactly what aptititude provides with its semuautomatic
tagging.  And the good thing is: if you don't care about having dangling
packages lying around, you don't have to do anything.

Regards,
-- 
                                                    Jens Peter Secher
_DD6A 05B0 174E BFB2 D4D9 B52E 0EE5 978A FE63 E8A1 jpsecher get2net dk_