Bug#384476: lintian: please emit error for dependencies against python-minimal
Package: lintian
Severity: wishlist
* Steve Langasek [Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:45:26 -0700]:
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 10:23:46AM +0200, Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 08:43:22AM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> > > Also note that much of Debian started out as Perl. I won't compare
> > > the two, but it's basically the same. And there is python-minimal
> > > and I have heard rumours that it will be in base soon.
> > What? What? What?
> > Can you expand on this rumor (you or someone else)? I was postponing a
> > post on debian-devel asking about having some sort of python in base
> > since I developed a tool for managing vim add-ons in python, but I'm
> > scared about uploading it with a dependency on python (since it should
> > be shipped with vim itself). More generally we have core tools developed
> > in python (e.g. reportbug), and it's a pity not having the minimal
> > needed python support for them in base.
> Frankly, I think the fact that Debian has a python-minimal package at *all*
> is deplorable. When this package first snuck into Debian from Ubuntu, it
> was stated quite clearly in the following discussion that upstream
> considered it completely unacceptable for anyone to ship python in such a
> state that users would end up with less than the full python suite installed
> on their system. The *only* reason for the split between python and
> python-minimal in Ubuntu is because python-minimal is Essential: yes, and
> the only reason this split is *acceptable* to upstream is that python itself
> is also part of the base system (Priority: important).
> Given that there has been no decision to include python-minimal in the set
> of essential packages for Debian, and python hasn't been promoted to the
> base system for Debian, it's totally premature for this package to even
> exist in Debian. The only goal this package serves is to make it convenient
> for the maintainer to maintain the package for both Debian and Ubuntu from a
> single source; in all other respects, it's bad for Debian.
> And the python2.4-minimal package even has reverse-dependencies in unstable
> now. <sigh>
It sounds to me like this is something lintian could check (it already
does with other packages, see e.g. the "depends-on-x-metapackage" tag).
Lintian maintainers, would you be willing to add a check to flag as an
error any dependency against python*-minimal, based on the above
explanation by Steve?
--
Adeodato Simó dato at net.com.org.es
Debian Developer adeodato at debian.org
Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read.
-- Mark Twain
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