"Eugene V. Lyubimkin" <jac...@debian.org> writes: > On 2012-07-10 18:10, Jonas Smedegaard wrote: >> The very purpose of a meta-package is to _ensure_ that a certain set of >> packages is installed, not just recommend them: All (not only most) >> users of that package need all its dependencies satisfied > > My definition of meta-package is less strict than yours. I as user > sometimes want '[meta]package X, but without packages Y and Z', and your > definition absolutely rules that out.
That's not a meta package then. That's a collection of loosely coupled stuff, and by that definition, a meta package should not use depends at all, but always recommends, because someone may want to use metapackage X, but without A, B and C. Might aswell get rid of them then. > I saw many questions on forums like > > "I did '$packagemanager install $metapackage' and then after > '$packagemanager remove $singlepackage', why $packagemanager now wants > to remove all $metapackage?" > > , so I know I'm not alone. Using Recommends for non-core parts of > metapackages' dependencies would nicely solve that. Well, in case of GNOME, upstream considers n-m to be part of the core system, to the best of my knowledge. If upstream does so, so should we. Besides, the solution is very easy: don't want all the deps of the meta? Don't install it. If you still want to pull most in, but exclude some, see the script I posted earlier. It can easily be changed to echo an apt-get line instead of a modified control file, if that's more suitable. -- |8] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/874npfzi3e.fsf@algernon.balabit
