Marvin Renich wrote: > * Josh Triplett <j...@joshtriplett.org> [150729 17:18]: > > Ole Streicher wrote: > > > Other packages will never depend on this metapackage; they will rather > > > depend on the individual programs. > > > > Other packages *in Debian* will not. I actually build a pile of > > personal metapackages to set up systems, and many of their dependencies > > are metapackages. If metapackages start using Recommends, that would be > > quite inconvenient, as it would mean that I'd have to manually copy the > > list of dependencies into my metapackage (and update it if the set of > > needed packages changes) rather than just depending on the metapackage. > > I don't understand this. Why would having a Debian metapackage A which > _correctly_ uses Recommends
[Considering that this is the whole point of this mail thread, "correctly" is a bit presumptuous.] > make your personal metapackage B which > Depends on A fail to install the recommended packages from A? The whole point of my metapackages is that absolutely everything *except* those metapackages is marked as "automatically installed". There's no programmatic way to distinguish between "Recommends that should be installed" and "Recommends that should not be installed"; that would be per-machine state information, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. So I turn off Recommends and make sure Depends reflect the packages I want installed. I suppose in theory I could turn Recommends back on and then add Conflicts in my metapackages for the Recommends that shouldn't be installed, but a quick check on my current system shows hundreds of uninstalled packages on my system that are Recommends of installed packages. That's more packages than I currently have in the Depends of my metapackages; maintaining that doesn't seem practical. Someday, perhaps I can turn Recommends back on, but for right now, there are far too many spurious recommends both in the core debootstrap set and in the average package to consider doing so. On the bright side, there's a lot of work going on right now to prune both the core debootstrap set and its Depends/Recommends. - Josh Triplett -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150730175105.GA3700@jtriplet-mobl1
