Bug#186809: dpkg-dev: dpkg-buildpackage should minimize build dependencies

["Adam Conrad" <adconrad@0c3.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jean-Michel Kelbert [mailto:kelbert@debian.org] 
> 
> If A is a primary dependency and B a dependency of A, C a 
> dependency of
> B and so on.
> 
> A->B->C->D ...
> 
> If A and C (and/or D, E ...) are listed in Build-Depends,
> dpkg-buildpackage should warn the user, because C (and/or D, E ... )
> should not be there.

This is categorically untrue in the case of complex packages, at least from
a logical standpoint.  Take a source package I maintain (php4), for
example.

1) I build-depend on libssl-dev because I want to enable the SSL functions
in the PHP core.

2) I build-depend on libc-client2003debian-dev for use with php4-imap.

libc-client2003debian-dev depends on libssl-dev, so in your scenario, I
should drop the first build-dep, however if I were to stop building
php4-imap, I would drop the libc-client2003debian-dev dependency and end up
breaking other parts of my build.  I list them this way on purpose so I
/don't/ end up doing that.  I don't need dpkg-buildpackage warning me about
this.  What does it hurt to have them listed twice?  The package will only
download and install once on autobuilders, afterall. :)

... Adam