Public bug reported:
On Ubuntu Server, "apt install collectd" pulls in huge parts of the
X.org stack, which is generally undesirable. This was brought up in
#ubuntu-server earlier. Workaround: use --no-install-recommends
This seems to be due to collectd -> libnotify4 -> gnome-shell -> ...
chain. This appears to have been made worse in an Ubuntu delta regarding
gnome-shell. Debian's packaging still recommends notification-daemon
which still pulls in quite a lot.
It seems odd to me that a lib* package would recommend anything, since
they tend to be leaves in the dependency tree apart from other lib*
packages. Further it's difficult to avoid depending on a lib* package
for optional functionality, so it ends up being inconvenient as
demonstrated in this use case.
Wouldn't it be better for the desktop environment to recommend something
that can receive notifications in order for the dependency system to do
the sensible thing by default, instead of using Recommends from the
notification sending end? Then headless systems wouldn't end up pulling
in a "head" via Recommends.
So my suggestion is to drop the Recommends from libnotify4 altogether,
including in Debian.
>From a policy perspective, Recommends is defined as "The Recommends
field should list packages that would be found together with this one in
all but unusual installations". I think the headless case is a common
installation, not an unusual one, so that disqualifies libnotify4
anyway.
** Affects: libnotify (Ubuntu)
Importance: Medium
Status: Triaged
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1961092
Title:
Installing collectd pulls in the X.org stack
Status in libnotify package in Ubuntu:
Triaged
Bug description:
On Ubuntu Server, "apt install collectd" pulls in huge parts of the
X.org stack, which is generally undesirable. This was brought up in
#ubuntu-server earlier. Workaround: use --no-install-recommends
This seems to be due to collectd -> libnotify4 -> gnome-shell -> ...
chain. This appears to have been made worse in an Ubuntu delta
regarding gnome-shell. Debian's packaging still recommends
notification-daemon which still pulls in quite a lot.
It seems odd to me that a lib* package would recommend anything, since
they tend to be leaves in the dependency tree apart from other lib*
packages. Further it's difficult to avoid depending on a lib* package
for optional functionality, so it ends up being inconvenient as
demonstrated in this use case.
Wouldn't it be better for the desktop environment to recommend
something that can receive notifications in order for the dependency
system to do the sensible thing by default, instead of using
Recommends from the notification sending end? Then headless systems
wouldn't end up pulling in a "head" via Recommends.
So my suggestion is to drop the Recommends from libnotify4 altogether,
including in Debian.
From a policy perspective, Recommends is defined as "The Recommends
field should list packages that would be found together with this one
in all but unusual installations". I think the headless case is a
common installation, not an unusual one, so that disqualifies
libnotify4 anyway.
To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libnotify/+bug/1961092/+subscriptions
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