On Wed, 23 Oct 2019 at 23:05:39 +0100, Rebecca N. Palmer wrote:
> - One big tangle (159 packages). This probably needs breaking up:
> --- Some of it involves documentation tools (e.g. sphinx). These cycles can
> be broken by using the Python 3 version of the tool.
You've listed dbus-python as being part of this cycle, but since version
1.2.10-1 it only Build-Depends on sphinx-common, python3-sphinx and
python3-sphinx-rtd-theme. Is that enough to remove it from this cycle?
I removed the block when I made that change, but someone('s script?)
seems to have added it back? I can't remove python-dbus and close the
2removal bug yet, because lots of packages still depend on python-dbus.
I also can't see how -sphinx would depend directly or indirectly on
-dbus. Perhaps some of the blocks have been added the wrong way round?
I wonder whether parts of the 159-package cycle are actually smaller
cycles with non-trivial intersection, such as:
python-sphinx --D--> sphinx-common
| ^ <--S--
D S
v |
python-alabaster
I'd tend to think of that as two intersecting 2-package cycles, rather
than one larger cycle.
> (Assuming we're still using "broken Suggests are not
> allowed": this has previously been discussed, I forget where.)
I think that's much too strong, particularly during a
transition. Transitions from unstable to testing only look at
(Pre-)Depends and Build-Depends(|-Arch|-Indep), although in general we
also consider broken Recommends to be a serious bug if anyone notices
them (due to Policy §2.2.1 "must not require or recommend a package
outside of main for compilation or execution").
Suggests are specifically not considered by Policy §2.2.1 (packages in
main are allowed to suggest packages that are in contrib, in non-free,
or not in the archive at all) and the pattern of cyclic Depends in one
direction, and Recommends or Suggests in the other, is extremely common.
smcv
