Package: debian-policy
Severity: wishlist
Version: 3.9.2.0
Hello,
section § 2.2.1 of the Policy reads as follows:
[..] the packages in main:
- must not require a package outside of main for compilation or execution
(thus, the package must not declare a "Depends", "Recommends", or
"Build-Depends" relationship on a non-main package),
I understand the intent of the sentence in parenthesis, i.e. not to
automatically install non-main packages while installing main ones, but
"Recommends" are not a "requirement" for installing the package, as per
definition in § 7.2 ("a strong, but not absolute, dependency"). If it was
otherwise, it should be listed as Depends, and the whole package should be
moved to contrib (thus, it's a bug in the package).
Automatic installation of Recommends is a per-system configuration option, and
shouldn't be assumed in Policy IMHO.
I suggest to drop "Recommends" from that sentence or, if we want to make sure
no non-main packages get pulled in, maybe that "require" should be changed to
something else ("cause the installation of"? I don't particularly like this
though).
Kindly,
David
--
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