Re: Build-Depends

[Steve Langasek <vorlon@netexpress.net>]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2001, Jochen Voss wrote:

> I have two question about Build-Depends:

> (1) If I want to Build-Depend on packages A, B, C, D, E, and F.  And A
> depends on B, C, D, E, and F.  Should I just mention A, because it
> implies B to F or should I enumerate them all?

Does your package need package B, or does your package just need package A,
which needs package B?

I would argue (others may disagree :) that if I'm packaging a program that
uses libfoo directly, and the program also uses libbar which links against
libfoo, I should Build-Depend: on both libfoo-dev and libbar-dev.  That way if
tomorrow the maintainer of libbar decides to patch her package so that it
builds "foo-free libbar", the autobuilders will still know what to do with
/my/ package.

If, OTOH, you only need B because A is linked to it, then only A belongs in
your Build-Depends list.

Cheers,
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer