Recursive Dependency Disease reminder and freetype status
I just finished updating the page http://wiki.debian.org/FreetypeTransition .
If your package is listed there, it has a bug: either a missing build-dependency,
or recursive dependency disease. We've made a lot of progress, but there are still
nearly 200 packages with unneeded and damaging dependencies on libfreetype6.
Not to mention the packages with inappropriate recursive dependencies on other
packages! libaudio2 is another common excess dependency.
For a reminder about recursive dependency disease, see
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/11/msg00016.html.
In the interests of making Debian's dependencies less fragile, I'm bringing this
topic up again, since I figure everyone's forgotten about it.
If you haven't checked your packages for bogus dependencies, please do
so. (Most of the time, a dependency on libfoo without a build-dependency on libfoo-dev
indicates either recursive dependency disease or a missing build-dependency. There
are rare exceptions; but if you've got *lots* of dependencies like this, you
*definitely* have recursive dependency disease.) If you maintain a library which
offers a .pc file for pkg-config (or offers a similar tool), please fix it.
I will file occasional bugs as I spot them, but given the sheer number of cases, I
thought a reminder to all Debian Developers was a better move. If you have difficulty
fixing this for your package, I believe several people including me are happy to help.
--
Nathanael Nerode <neroden@fastmail.fm>
Theocracy, fascism, or absolute monarchy -- I don't care which it is, I don't like it.
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