Re: Is the dependency rule distribution-wise?

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Fri, 19 Feb 1999, Joseph Carter wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 18, 1999 at 06:37:33PM +0100, Santiago Vila wrote:
> > Well, apparently the ftp.debian.org maintainers disagree.
> > 
> > In slink, the info package is important, but depends on ncurses3.4 which
> > is optional.
> 
> info should be recompiled.  =p

Yes, but the dependency of slink's info on slink's ncurses3.4 is "right" 
in the sense that the dependency found in the control file matches the
real dependency of the info binary inside the info.deb package in slink
(i.e. info dependency in slink is the one it is).

Please note that policy says:

   Packages may not depend on packages with lower priority values. If
   this should happen, one of the priority values will have to be
   adapted.

It does not say "... or alternatively the package should be recompiled".

If we are going to allow ncurses3.4 to be optional in slink, we
should amend policy first.

[ Or maybe I should understand policy as saying something it does not say? ].

Thanks.

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