On 07/11/2024 04:12, Aaron Rainbolt wrote:
just to get around problematic recommends in Debian's packages.
What about having a way to configure the packaging tools you use to only consider a whitelist (with pattern match, pin-style) of package Recommends? This way you could use your metapackages Recommends while ignoring others.
One major issue I see with your initial proposal is that if there is already some room for interpretation with the current fields, adding a new field is likely to make things even worse in terms of compliance as there will still be room for interpretation (or misuse) with now two fields with slightly tighter definitions and some significant overlap. In short this is a case of "now you have two problems".
-- Julien Plissonneau Duquène
