On Sunday, June 15, 2014 21:27:57 Peter Pentchev wrote: > Source: python-defaults > Version: 2.7.6-2 > Severity: wishlist > Tags: patch > > Hi, > > First of all, thanks for maintaining Python in Debian! > > As part of this year's "Bootstrappable Debian" Google Summer of Code > project I took a look at python-defaults ...
> After this somewhat lengthy introduction, the point of my work on > python-defaults was to remove two circular build dependencies: > lsb-release and python-docutils, both of which require python to be > already present. It was very easy to drop lsb-release, since dpkg-dev > 1.15.1 and later provide the needed functionality in the dpkg-vendor > utility. > > With python-docutils the result was a bit more... unconventional than > I'd like. The usual way to resolve these circular build dependencies is > to make sure all the files that need more tools for generating are moved > to a separate package and this package is built conditionally. For > documentation files, this is usually very easy, as with libtasn1-6 in > #749854, autogen in #751470, flex in #749344 - in some cases it's as > easy as moving some packages from Build-Depends to Build-Depends-Indep > and slightly adjusting the rules file to only build the documentation in > build-indep/binary-indep. Well, with python-docutils this led to two > weird consequences: > - the Python Policy and the Python FAQ had to be moved from the python > binary package to the python-doc one, which meant that, to avoid > replacing the /usr/share/doc/python/python-policy.html/ directory with > a symlink to ../python-doc/python-policy.html/, I had to let > python-doc install stuff into /usr/share/doc/python/. I know that > this usually raises a few eyebrows, but it seems to be the cleanest > way to do it (dpkg does not seem to handle very well a directory being > replaced with a symlink during a package upgrade). > - the manual pages for the executable tools in the python and > python-minimal binary packages are also generated documentation, which > means that there was a choice: go with statically-generated versions > and make sure they are refreshed periodically, or move them to > python-doc, too. Well, moving them to python-doc leads to it now > installing manual pages for utilities in another package - another > "raise a few eyebrows" situation. > > I added a Recommends: python-doc to both python and python-minimal, so > that in the usual "recommended packages are installed by default" case > both the Python Policy and the manual pages will be present on the > system. Still, I realize that this is a bit fishy, and in the end you > have the final say as actual maintainers of the Python packages in > Debian, so... here are the proposed patches, let the critique begin! :) The change from lsb-release to dpkg-vendor is, as you suggest very uncontroversial and I've committed it to our repository for the next upload. The other changes require more consideration. I've cloned this bug into #754060 to continue that part of the issue. Scott K
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