RE: seeking advice concerning xtide package split
>
> I maintain the xtide package. Currently, it's not a pristine
> package: I add harmonics data to the package that are otherwise
> downloaded manually from the author's web site (it was packaged
> this way when I adopted it). Since the xtide software itself and
> the harmonics data are updated independently by the author, I
> want to split off the package into the software and a supporting
> data package. This will allow:
>
splitting seems useful given your situation
> 2- Create `xtide' and `xtide-data' with xtide _depending_ on
> xtide-data.
>
> Advantages:
> - Casual user might do `apt-get install xtide', try it and
> see a working package.
>
> Disavantages:
> - Users that want to download data separately would have a
> problem.
> - Users that want to install xtide-data and trim it down (as
> described above) could not purge the package, but would
> need to put the package on hold instead.
>
if the program needs this data to run, a depends make sense. As you said, they
can put it on hold and thus only get hit with a large download every now and
then.
Your other option is to create a small subset of the data and include it in the
main package and let the rest be in the -data package. This way they can at
least sample the package.
Reply to: