On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 02:53:52PM -0600, Steve Langasek wrote: > Does your package need package B, or does your package just need package A, > which needs package B? > > I would argue (others may disagree :) that if I'm packaging a program that > uses libfoo directly, and the program also uses libbar which links against > libfoo, I should Build-Depend: on both libfoo-dev and libbar-dev. That way if > tomorrow the maintainer of libbar decides to patch her package so that it > builds "foo-free libbar", the autobuilders will still know what to do with > /my/ package.
If your program directly uses libfoo and libbar, then you should build-depend on both. If your program only needs libbar because libfoo needs libbar, then don't. I was particularly annoyed by the following bug report received against one of my packages: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=84871&repeatmerged=yes The submitter assumed that my build-dep for libglib-dev was unnecessary because I was also depending on libgtk1.2-dev. Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
