dependency question

[Al Stone <ahs3@fc.hp.com>]

I may have asked this question before, so I
apologize up front if this is a repeat.  A
discussion I've had with an upstream developer
leads me to try the question again...

I've got packages I'm maintaining -- oprofile
and prospect -- that both need a particular
kernel module to work.  As a new DD, I was
finally able to get these into unstable a week
or so ago.  The packages themselves are tools
that run in user-space, collecting and analyzing
performance data from a kernel module that must
be loaded.

Right now, these packages only "Recommend:" the
kernel module (in this case, oprofile-module0.6.1).

I did not want to make it a "Depends:" since I did
not want to force a Debian user to install the
kernel module and in turn force them to install a
Debian kernel-image package -- the module is only
needed for 2.[24].x kernels, and will not be needed
at all in 2.6.x kernels (it's now a standard part 
of the kernel and Herbert has agreed to include the
module in kernel-image packages by default).  And,
if you're not using the kernel-images packages at
all and have a custom built kernel, you'd be forced
to install at least one kernel-image in order to
install oprofile or prospect.

OTOH, by not making it a "Depends:", I could end
up with a situation where installing oprofile or
prospect would work, but the tools themselves would
not because the kernel module is missing.

The upstream author for prospect really would like
to see a "Depends:".  I'm inclined to leave it the
way it is.  I figure I've got two options:

  (1)  Leave things alone; this implies that I'll
       have to rely on the user to be smart enough
       to know what to do when the tools fail because
       they cannot load a kernel module that is not
       present.

  (2)  Enforce the dependencies via "Depends:",
       requiring the kernel module and at least one
       kernel-image to be installed.

Debian Policy doesn't seem to address this sort of
issue (unless I missed it somewhere -- always possible).
Other DD's I've talked to prefer the looser restrictions
that seem to allow for a broader range of use cases.

What say the mentors?  Should I force the dependencies?
Should I gamble on the users knowing what to do (with
proper README.Debian entries, of course)?

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Ciao,
al
----------------------------
Al Stone
Email: ahs3@debian.org
----------------------------