Re: Recommends for metapackages
"Eugene V. Lyubimkin" <jackyf@debian.org> writes:
> Moreover, despite me understanding the picture, I still
> has no clean, safe and documented way to do what I'd want in case the
> package maintainer chosed Depends.
You have: install the pieces you want by hand. That's at least clean and
safe. I do not think it is worth documenting explicitly.
>> > Using Recommends for non-core parts of
>> > metapackages' dependencies would nicely solve that.
>>
>> ...but I disagree that making meta-packages more elastic is a "nice"
>> solution: is a hack covering over misguided users. Possible solutions
>> could be improved documentation and improved design of package managers.
>
> ... And I disagree with that. No solution can override policy's "all
> Depends must be satisfied". If one choose to support the "exclude from
> metapackage" one either has to change the policy, remove packages from
> Depends or use non-stock metapackage (which I personally don't like).
Changing the policy would be stupid. Demoting to Recommends would be
less so, but if upstream considers a package a core part of a platform,
recommends *is* wrong. If you disagree with upstream, you have the tools
and the ability to customize your system: use a non-stock meta package.
It's not hard. I'd be very curious why you're so against it, perhaps we
can come up with a solution that satisfies you?
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