Re: auto-removal and alternative dependencies

[Daniel Pocock <daniel@pocock.pro>]

On 08/12/16 16:59, Adam D. Barratt wrote:
> On 2016-12-08 13:08, Andreas Henriksson wrote:
>> On Thu, Dec 08, 2016 at 01:41:38PM +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 08/12/16 13:35, Andrey Rahmatullin wrote:
>>> > On Thu, Dec 08, 2016 at 01:02:20PM +0100, Daniel Pocock wrote:
>> [...]
>>>
>>> I don't think that clearly addresses the case of alternative
>>> dependencies.
> 
> It does when one of the alternatives doesn't exist in the archive.
> 
>>> My packages do not "require" nagios3, although they will work with it
>>> if the user doesn't have Icinga.
>>>
>>> Maybe that clause could be extended to state that packages (may|may
>>> not) include alternative dependencies that are not in main, as long as
>>> at least one of the alternatives is in main.
>>
>> Not sure what Andrey is supposed to be quoting here, but see
>> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=681419#275
>> (Conclusion/ruling at the bottom of that post.)
> 
> Andrey was quoting the section of policy that the TC ruling you mention
> applies to.
> 
> Specifically there's no practical difference between
> "package-in-non-free | package-in-main" and "package-removed-from-debian
> | package-in-main" so far as acceptable dependencies for packages in
> main are concerned.
> 

Reading that entire resolution, it concludes:

6. The Technical Committee resolves that alternative dependencies of
   the form "Depends: package-in-main | package-in-non-free" are
   permissible in main, and do not constitute a violation of the
   policy clause cited in point 1.

7. We nevertheless recommend that packages in main consider carefully
   whether this might cause the inadvertent installation of non-free
   packages due to conflicts, especially those with usage
   restrictions.

so I think that is suggesting my packages (ganglia-nagios-bridge and
syslog-nagios-bridge) can potentially continue to include nagios3 as a
permitted dependency as long as they also have at least one alternative
dependency (icinga) that is in main.

Despite the names of my packages, I'm not encouraging people to install
Nagios and I'm completely happy for people to run them with Icinga or
whatever else they want to try, but I don't want to force them to ditch
nagios3 if they are willing to keep it.

Regards,

Daniel