On Wed, Feb 19, 2003 at 11:50:38PM +0000, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton scrawled: > [kasnip] > > xserver-xfree86 _definitely_ depends on xfonts-base, despite what > you think. > > if xserver-xfree86 doesn't work without xfonts-base installed, > then there is a dependency! > > there is no escaping that simple fact!
It's perfectly possible to have fonts without xfonts-base: just install xfs on a remote machine. This is what a lot of large labs, etc, do - it centralizes resources. > logical inescapable conclusion: xserver needs fonts! Yes, but not through xfonts-base. It can be through any mechanism. > the dependency is expressed via the meta-package, x-window-system. Yes. > therefore, whatever the dependencies that x-window-system lists > must ALSO apply to all its REAL packages. No; otherwise we wouldn't need metapackages. > so, even if you "jump in", as i did, into installing only > a limited subset of packages, there HAS to be some way of > saying "this might not work". xserver-xfree86 Recommends: xfonts-base - dselect and aptitude should handle this correctly. > you see, it's not that x-window-system-core depends on xserver-xfree86, > xlibmesa3, xfonts-base, xfonts-100dpi, xfonts-75dpi, xfonts-scalable, > xbase-clients and xutils. > > it's that xserver-xfree86 CANNOT WORK WITHOUT those packages installed. Nope - it can work without xlibmesa3, without any font packages, without xbase-clients, and without xutils. Who says your fonts and running apps have to be local? > if xserver-xfree86 does not work without x-window-system's group > of packages having been installed, then this needs to be specified. Only thing, it does. > "you are about to install the following package however it is > unlikely to work unless you install one of the following: > x-window-system; y-window-system ..." do you wish to proceed > yes or no. xserver-xfree86, as I said above, recommends that you install xfonts-base, through its Recommends: xfonts-base relationship. > if you believe that xserver-xfree86 is _not_ dependent upon > xfonts-base, then why is it possible to install xserver-xfree86 > at all when neither the meta package x-window-system nor > x-window-system-core nor the real package xfonts-base is > not installed? Because you can still have a flawlessly working X system without it? Hell, you could run KDE if you liked. > if x-window-system is a meta-package that installs > xserver-xfree86, what is the equivalent package to > x-window-system that gets xserver-mach32 installed, or > xserver-svga installed? AFAIK, there is none for the XFree86 3.3.x servers; such is life. -- Daniel Stone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Developer, Trinity College, University of Melbourne
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