Bug#612239: sgml-data should suggest package w3-recs instead of missing package doc-html-w3
Package: sgml-data
Version: 2.0.3
Severity: minor
In random surfing around www.debian.org, etc, I noticed that the
"sgml-data" package as currently provided by all of old-stable (Debian
5.0), stable (6.0), and unstable suggests a package called
"doc-html-w3", but this latter package is apparently not available in
any of these versions. See for instance
http://packages.debian.org/sid/sgml-data (you can replace "sid" by
"lenny" or "squeeze"). This affects versions 2.0.3, 2.0.4, and 2.0.5
of the package sgml-data.
A little research reveals that doc-html-w3 _used_ to exist within
Debian, but was first orphaned (see
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=416033 ) and then
removed (see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=460906
). Based on those bug reports and more research, it appears the
functional replacement for this package is now the package "w3-recs",
which is available in all of old-stable, stable, and unstable in
non-free. See for instance http://packages.debian.org/sid/w3-recs .
I believe that sgml-data's dependency on doc-html-w3 should be removed
(obviously), and furthermore probably replaced with a dependency on
w3-recs instead. Because w3-recs is in non-free (as doc-html-w3
itself apparently used to be), this new dependency should probably
also be a Suggests, just as the old one was.
Further, if there are any other packages elsewhere in the archives
with a dependency on doc-html-w3, those packages should probably also
have that dependency replaced with one of a similar level on w3-recs
(assuming it made sense to have the doc-html-w3 dependency in the
first place). However, that's something out of scope for this bug
report, of course. (Is there an easy way, using the various web
services only, to see what packages depend on another package when
that other package does not itself exist anymore? Should this be a
lintian check or something? Note that I myself am not actually
running Debian at this time, so I cannot use any command-line tools or
data.)
Thanks for your time. Hope this is of some use and interest. My
apologies if this bug report is incorrectly formatted; I am formatting
it by hand in e-mail. Let me know if there is further info I can
provide.
Joseph
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