[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Circular dependencies



Luis Rodrigo Gallardo Cruz <rodrigo@nul-unu.com> writes:

> So, it has been repeated over and over that circular dependencies are bad
> form, maybe even bugs. Still, there are packages for which they seem to be 
> the only reasonable choice, like liferea-gtkhtml, completely useless
> without liferea, which in turn depends on liferea-gtkhtml | liferea-xulrunner
> because it is completely useless without (at least) one of them.
>
> So, does one break the no-circular-dependencies rule here? Get one of the packages
> to Recommend: the other? Downgrade and wontfix the bug report (#386685)
> with a link to the thread on -devel? Close it?

I don't think a "useless without" applies to a library. Kdelibs4 is
useless without kde apps but you still don't see it depend on kwm |
kdm | ....

The depends are for when things break when you don't have the other
package. An application breask without the library since users calling
it without get errors. A library does not break without applications,
it just doesn't get used.

This is one of the cases of a depends for the sake of getting
liferea-gtkhtml removed when liferea is removed. Let the automatic
removal of aptitude, deborphan or debfoster take care of that. A
depends is not needed.

My 2c,
        Goswin



Reply to: