Bug#747716: qttools5-dev-tools: libqt5sql5-sqlite should be a hard dependency
On May 11, 2014 10:34:41 AM EDT, Shriramana Sharma <samjnaa@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 5/11/14, Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com> wrote:
>> On Sunday, May 11, 2014 18:52:31 Shriramana Sharma wrote:
>>> Hello. You say it is not a hard depends, but
>>> https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/dreq.en.html#control
>>> says to use Depends "if your program absolutely will not run (or
>will
>>> cause severe breakage) unless a particular package is present."
>Given
>>> that assistant is one of the programs installed by this package, and
>>> it does not run without the libqt*sqlite package, IMO it stands to
>>> reason that the latter is indeed a Depends.
>>
>> You are misreading that. In this case Recommends is what is
>typically used.
>
>You say "typically used" -- you are saying this is current existing
>practice of package maintainers. Fine. But it is not as per the policy
>as it is stated in the above page. Please point out where in the
>specification does it say "Recommends is used for packages which are a
>dependency of one/some but not all of the programs installed by a
>package"?
>
>The policy as it stands as to what are Depends, Recommends and
>Suggests is quite sane, but it seems to speak as if one package
>installs one program only. One would assume that what is said by the
>wording for one program is true in general, and hence "program" would
>be read as "programs". In which case, whatever one of the programmed
>installed by a package cannot be executed without is indeed a
>dependency.
>
>> Debian (and Ubuntu) install Recommends by default, so the only reason
>you
>> wouldn't have Recommends installed too is if your system is in a
>> non-standard
>> configuration. If so, that's the problem, not the package.
>
>I do not install recommends by default because I am not on a very high
>speed connection. Probably others may choose it because they are on a
>connected billed by bandwidth used.
>
>Whatever be the reason for not installing recommends, I expect that
>when I install a package using apt-get, it should pull in the hard
>dependencies, and the hard dependencies are those which are required
>to execute whatever is installed by the package. As I said earlier,
>the dependency of one program installed by the package should be a
>dependency of the package. If not, it is simply counter-intuitive.
No. You are describing Recommends. To paraphrase, Recommends is for packages needed in all but unusal situations. If something is only needed by one element of a package, Recommends is correct.
Scott K
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