On 2015-11-28 at 09:55, MI wrote:
> I'm setting up a new server, and wanted to install "meld", a nice
> "graphical tool to diff and merge files".
>
> Surprised by the huge amount of dependencies it was about to install,
> I had a closer look. And indeed, the dependencies seem ridiculous:
> spell-checkers, multimedia codecs, a modem manager, wifi, etc. Below
> is the full list, with the short descriptions, and "??" in front of
> those which seemed obviously unneeded. I'm sure there are even more
> unneeded ones, which I didn't mark because I'm not sure what they are
> for.
Could you explain where you got this list from?
On my system (tracking stable + testing), I get:
========
$ apt-cache show meld
Package: meld
Version: 3.14.1-1
Installed-Size: 2829
Maintainer: Balint Reczey <balint@balintreczey.hu>
Architecture: all
Depends: python, python:any (<< 2.8), python:any (>= 2.7.5-5~),
dconf-gsettings-backend | gsettings-backend, libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.6),
python-gi (>= 3.8), libgtksourceview-3.0-1 (>= 3.6),
gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 (>= 3.6), python-gi-cairo, libcanberra-gtk3-module,
patch
Recommends: yelp
Description-en: graphical tool to diff and merge files
Meld is a graphical diff viewer and merge application for the GNOME
desktop. It supports 2 and 3-file diffs, recursive directory diffs,
diffing of directories under version control (Bazaar, Codeville, CVS,
Darcs, Fossil SCM, Git, Mercurial, Monotone, Subversion), as well as
the ability to manually and automatically merge file differences.
Description-md5: bd611fbabd1f792adff5ca413dd3d449
Homepage: http://meldmerge.org
Tag: implemented-in::python, interface::x11, role::program, suite::gnome,
uitoolkit::gtk, use::comparing, use::synchronizing, works-with::text,
x11::application
Section: gnome
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/m/meld/meld_3.14.1-1_all.deb
Size: 457938
MD5sum: 4e95a3b3fe043789181932552ec6b894
SHA1: 87a8c97e00738698bb353fc96dd585664c92e2c2
SHA256: 2ab10fc6558e94dcff543ddf35a3dbb95a40f5dfb064300716285d696520d1e3
========
(With the similar output from the earlier version in stable snipped.)
That does not list anywhere near the set of packages which you gave as
being dependencies.
Similarly, in a dry-run install attempt, I get:
========
$ apt-get --dry-run install meld
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer
required:
libgconf2-4 libsisu-guice-java
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
libcanberra-gtk3-0 libcanberra-gtk3-module python-gi-cairo
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libcanberra-gtk3-0 libcanberra-gtk3-module meld python-gi-cairo
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Inst libcanberra-gtk3-0 (0.30-2.1 Debian:8.2/stable, Debian:testing [amd64])
Inst libcanberra-gtk3-module (0.30-2.1 Debian:8.2/stable, Debian:testing
[amd64])
Inst python-gi-cairo (3.18.2-2 Debian:testing [amd64])
Inst meld (3.14.1-1 Debian:testing [all])
Conf libcanberra-gtk3-0 (0.30-2.1 Debian:8.2/stable, Debian:testing [amd64])
Conf libcanberra-gtk3-module (0.30-2.1 Debian:8.2/stable, Debian:testing
[amd64])
Conf python-gi-cairo (3.18.2-2 Debian:testing [amd64])
Conf meld (3.14.1-1 Debian:testing [all])
========
Which only tries to install a few packages related to those listed in
the dependencies above, and - again - certainly nowhere near the set you
gave. (And while I do have some of the packages you listed installed, I
don't have all of them, and a similar dry-run attempt at installing meld
while removing one of those packages shows no errors.)
I'm not doubting that you did get the results you described, but I'm
trying to figure out how, because it certainly does not match my experience.
> It looks like the meld package wants to install a full desktop with
> all the bells and whistles on my headless server.
>
> So the question is: what is the best way to install meld without all
> the cruft?
The first thing I'd suggest is trying with --no-install-recommends, in
case it's the recommendation of yelp that is somehow pulling in all the
rest of this; that doesn't seem terribly likely, but it's a low-cost
thing to check.
After that - in addition to the question asked above - I'd want to see
your sources.list, in case there's anything strange there.
--
The Wanderer
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature