Re: [OT] Sorry state of hplip (was: [SOLVED] Re: [jessie] recording line-in using ALSA?)
On Sun 30 Oct 2016 at 00:20:43 +0300, Reco wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Oct 2016 20:36:27 +0100
> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Sat 29 Oct 2016 at 21:51:48 +0300, Reco wrote:
> >
> > > Oh, and don't get me started on the way they package hplip.
> >
> > Please do. What is wrong with the packaging of hplip?
>
> I won't speak of stretch and sid, as these branches of Debian
> distribution don't interest me in this regard so far.
>
> The task itself is simple - one (may be two for the redundancy)
> centralized print-servers with arbitrary number of clients (without
> any CUPS or HPLIP). Several HP printers, because they bought the stuff.
>
> What's needed? A small amount of packages providing needed CUPS
> filters, backends and PPDs. The CUPS itself, of course.
printer-driver-hpcups and printer-driver-hpijs would be sufficient for
just printing. That is why the packages are provided.
> What do they give us in Debian instead? An enterprisey tangled mess.
It certainly has complexity.
> 'hplip' itself, and it's direct dependencies 'hplip-data' and
> 'printer-driver-hpcups'.
>
> There's also 'hplip-gui' with the bunch of worthless (for the
> print-server) GUI tools. Oh, and python-qt4 as a dependency and a half
> of KDE with it as a result, not a small achievement for the package of
> the size of 88k.
Upstream doesn't provide a GTK GUI; the packager doesn't have any
option. The package is also optional to install; a user's choice.
> Let's continue with 'hplip-data' as its list of dependencies is smaller.
> For the lazy of us, package description states 'This package
> contains data files and PPDs for the HP Linux Printing and Imaging
> System'. Apparently said 'data files' are in fact python scripts put
> into this package for some bizarre reason, as package brings you python
> installation immediately.
The "bizarre reason" reason is probably that the .py and .pyc files are
platform independent.
I cannot see any PPDs in hplip-data:
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/all/hplip-data/filelist
Looks like a bug in the package description.
> Next, the big winner, 'hplip'. Highlight points include:
>
> 1) Python as a dependency, again. Wait, haven't we install one already
> with 'hplip-data'? Some python modules too, yet the package does not
> contain a single python script (see pt 6).
See above.
> 2) wget as a dependency. Included for the sole purpose of acquiring
> non-free blobs from openprining.org by /usr/bin/hp-firmware (see pt 6),
> yet the package somehow belongs in 'main'.
main's ok. No non-free blobs are packaged.
> 3) policykit-1 as a dependency. How exactly it's required for the
> actual printing done by CUPS invoking HPLIP filters
> (executables /usr/lib/cups/filter/) and backends
> (executables /usr/lib/cups/backend/)?
> Hint - it's not. But a certain python script (see pt 6) apparently
> does.
Possibly needed for installing a plugin.
> 4) avahi-daemon as Recommends. Apparently it's considered so important
> that they recommend it again (CUPS has the same Recommend). Kind of
> surprised not to see it as Depends.
CUPS was installed without its Recommends: because you do not want to
discover Bonjour broadcasted print queues. Later, HPLIP was installed
and you want to discover Bonjour broadcasted HP printers. A Depends:
would be unsuitable if you were only setting up a USB printer.
> 5) Aforementioned backends. Worth mentioning as another part of the
> puzzle actually related to the printing (filters) resides in
> 'printer-driver-hpcups' (which is by itself is ok). Apparently because
> reasons.
Sorry; don't follow.
> 6) A bunch of symlinks to assorted python scripts from 'hplip-data',
> note again that it's 'hplip' that contains all those python script
> dependencies, not 'hplip-data'.
Platform independence again?
> Things have improved somewhat since wheezy (they didn't provide
> 'printer-driver-hpcups' back then), but it's only 'somewhat'.
It was provided but under a different name.
--
Brian.
Reply to: