Re: Recommends for metapackages
On 2012-07-11 14:33, Gergely Nagy wrote:
> "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.
No, this is (IMO) not a solution: [1]
> >> > 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).
>
> [...] 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.
Well, disagreed here. By the logic above we, for example, cannot apply
any patches NACKed by upstream.
> 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?
Because if a user who installed Debian yesterday asks me "So how do I do
that?" I want my answer to be
"It's easy, just do '$packagemanager remove $singlepackage'"
instead of
"It's easy, just build and maintain a non-stock meta package"
[1] a) and b) here: https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/07/msg00237.html
--
Eugene V. Lyubimkin aka JackYF, JID: jackyf.devel(maildog)gmail.com
C++ GNU/Linux developer, Debian Developer
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