Bug#941803: debian-policy: dependencies on font packages

[Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>]

On Sat, Oct 05, 2019 at 09:44:25PM +0200, Stephen Kitt wrote:
> Policy section 11.8.5, point 1 says
> 
> > If one or more of the fonts so packaged are necessary for proper
> > operation of the package with which they are associated the font
> > package may be Recommended; if the fonts merely provide an
> > enhancement, a Suggests relationship may be used. Packages must not
> > Depend on font packages.
> 
> The associated footnote explains that
> 
> > This is because the X server may retrieve fonts from the local file
> > system or over the network from an X font server; the Debian package
> > system is empowered to deal only with the local file system.
> 
> While this is still technically true, it seems rather irrelevant
> nowadays: most GUI programs directly render fonts obtained locally,
> and even for “traditional” X fonts, the vast majority of systems will
> obtain the fonts locally. Debian hasn’t had xfs for 5.5 years
> (<https://bugs.debian.org/bug=733958>); there is another font server
> available, xfstt, but that only handles TrueType fonts.
> 
> It’s common for packages to strongly depend on non-X fonts they need;
> see for example the reverse dependencies of fonts-dejavu. While
> lintian objects to X font depencencies
> (<https://lintian.debian.org/tags/package-depends-on-an-x-font-package.html>),
> it doesn’t have anything to say about non-X fonts (rightly so).
> 
> Wouldn’t it make sense to relax the constraints on X font
> dependencies?
> 
I don't think this change is good as-is.  The "don't depend on X font
packages" is still very much relevant, for applications that use the
"traditional" X font system, where the X server loads the fonts.  The X
server can still be on a different machine from the client.

This was never meant to apply to clients that use things like Xft to
load and render fonts client-side.  But I would think these mostly use
truetype fonts not the old bitmap fonts.

So while this section could absolutely use an update, "don't depend on
xfonts-*" is still a good recommendation IMO.

Cheers,
Julien