Re: perl and perl-modules; reflexive dependencies vs. archive bloat

[Magnus Holmgren <holmgren@debian.org>]

On fredagen den 23 oktober 2009, Don Armstrong wrote:
> Currently there is a proposal[0] to combine perl-modules and perl into
> a single package. perl-modules currently contains architecture
> independent bits, and perl contains architecture dependent bits.
> 
> FWICT, the primary argument[1] to do this is because perl and
> perl-modules both require the other to function properly (so a
> reflexive dependency or combining is reqeuired), and because circular
> dependencies make things complicated for dpkg and other frontends.

IIUC, the problem is with the ordering of the postinst scripts. "Depends" 
means that the other package has to be in the configured state before the 
depending package's postinst script can be run, but in many cases the 
depending package has no postinst script or the dependency doesn't apply to 
the postinst script but merely to the application as such after installation.

Would  a new package relationship, say "Post-Depends", be helpful?

-- 
Magnus Holmgren        holmgren@debian.org
Debian Developer