Bug#823348: Limit the strongest dependencies on supplemental -doc packages
Package: debian-policy
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Based on a thread on debian-devel about Recommends, I'd like to propose
the attached change to policy, which limits the strongest dependency a
package should declare on its supplemental -doc package.
This mostly documents existing practice. Packages don't tend to declare
Depends on their -doc packages at all. Packages primarily used for
development don't tend to declare Recommends on their -doc packages to
avoid installing them by default on the systems of developers who just
want the package installed to support development of some other package.
Likewise, command-line tools that already provide a manpage or a text
manual don't tend to declare Recommends on a -doc package providing an
HTML manual for that tool.
The phrasing of "at most" avoids mandating any minimum dependency
relationship, leaving it up to the maintainer's discretion how much the
prospective user of a package will want the corresponding -doc package.
- Josh Triplett
-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 4.5.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
>From ce0c8de0bf9ad36b7f5c95da25daa16db55fb259 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 12:50:54 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Limit the strongest dependencies on supplemental -doc
packages
This mostly documents existing practice. Packages don't tend to declare
Depends on their -doc packages at all. Packages primarily used for
development don't tend to declare Recommends on their -doc packages to
avoid installing them by default on the systems of developers who just
want the package installed to support development of some other package.
Likewise, command-line tools that already provide a manpage or a text
manual tend to avoid a Recommends on a -doc package providing an HTML
manual for that tool.
The phrasing of "at most" avoids mandating any minimum dependency
relationship, leaving it up to the maintainer's discretion how much the
prospective user of a package will want the corresponding -doc package.
---
policy.sgml | 12 ++++++++++++
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 404dc73..421e0d1 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -10699,6 +10699,18 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
</p>
<p>
+ If <var>package</var> is a build tool, development tool,
+ command-line tool, or library development package,
+ <var>package</var> (or <var>package</var>-dev in the case of a
+ library development package) already provides documentation in
+ man, info, or plain text format, and <var>package</var>-doc
+ provides HTML or other formats, <var>package</var> should declare
+ at most a <tt>Suggests</tt> on <var>package</var>-doc. Otherwise,
+ <var>package</var> should declare at most a <tt>Recommends</tt> on
+ <var>package</var>-doc.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
Additional documentation included in the package should be
installed under <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
If the documentation is packaged separately,
--
2.8.1
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