> > I maintain the xtide package. Currently, it's not a pristine > package: I add harmonics data to the package that are otherwise > downloaded manually from the author's web site (it was packaged > this way when I adopted it). Since the xtide software itself and > the harmonics data are updated independently by the author, I > want to split off the package into the software and a supporting > data package. This will allow: >
splitting seems useful given your situation > 2- Create `xtide' and `xtide-data' with xtide _depending_ on > xtide-data. > > Advantages: > - Casual user might do `apt-get install xtide', try it and > see a working package. > > Disavantages: > - Users that want to download data separately would have a > problem. > - Users that want to install xtide-data and trim it down (as > described above) could not purge the package, but would > need to put the package on hold instead. > if the program needs this data to run, a depends make sense. As you said, they can put it on hold and thus only get hit with a large download every now and then. Your other option is to create a small subset of the data and include it in the main package and let the rest be in the -data package. This way they can at least sample the package.
