Re: breaking depenancies

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 05:42:01AM -0500, Michael B Allen wrote:
> Colin Watson wrote:
> > On Thu, Jan 15, 2004 at 04:14:45AM -0500, Michael B Allen wrote:
> >> apt-get install webalizer wants to install X libs. I don't want X
> >> libs. How can I break this dependency so I can install webalizer
> >> without X?
> >
> > Recompile webalizer from the Debian source package, altering it so that
> > it doesn't build the X bits.
> >
> > xlibs isn't *that* large a package, though.
> 
> I baulk at the idea of installing 7.5MB of X libraries just for The
> Webalizer.

Obviously not just for webalizer, since I believe I've seen you asking
about other packages that indirectly depend on xlibs.

> It's not right! The real question is; why does it need X libraries?

Probably for the GD graphics library's XPM output. In fact - how about
'apt-get install webalizer libgd2-noxpm'?

I suggest getting used to using 'apt-cache show <package>' and reading
Depends: lines to work out where dependencies come from. Good package
management frontends (i.e. not apt-get) should be able to tell you, too;
even the venerable dselect can do this, so I'd imagine aptitude can as
well.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]