Re: Source-Depends implementation
On Tue, Jan 12, 1999 at 03:12:34PM -0500, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Ben Collins wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Jan 12, 1999 at 01:09:52PM -0500, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > > Do either dpkg-source or dpkg-buildpackage have some compelling need to be
> > > driven by these dependencies?
> >
> > IMO, they should do nothing more than give a warning, but continue as if
> > nothing was wrong. The only reason for source depends is a 'quick check'.
> > for users and automated programs such as dbuild and apt. It should be left
> > up to the user as to the importance of these messages.
> >
> > As far as alternate sources. I think the only one listed should be the one
> > the original packager used to compile it with. This assures compatibility
> > across the ports. We don't want i386 "pkgfoo" to be linked against slang
> > while the sparc "pkgfoo" is linked against ncurses.
>
> That wasn't my point. I maintaine ae, which over the past several years
> has moved from terminfo, to several specific ncurses, and finally to slang
> and slang1. So, it is important to "normal" development to be able to
> move to something else.
That is something that the original maintainer would make an effort to
decide. If he/she compiles the ncurses now...then the source-depends
should show that in order to keep consistent with that version. If the
maintainer then compiles against slang1 (obviously upping the package
version) then they would change the source-depends accordingly and the new
.dsc would reflect this.
The thing to remember is that we are doing this for Debian systems, so we
don't want any inconsistency.
> In addition, while the automated builds benefit from knowing about and
> satisfying these dependencies in the "prescribed" Debian fashion, the user
> should have the freedom to reconfigure these packages to alternate
> libraries without having to rebuild the package from scratch.
They can do that. If they know how to compile with different libraries,
then they know enough to ignore the source dependencies at their
discretion. Like I said, the Source-Depends should not stop compilation or
cause an error if they are not met. A simple warning message stating what
packages aren't there is all that is needed. It is then up to the user to
decide what to do with that information.
--
----- -- - -------- --------- ---- ------- ----- - - --- --------
Ben Collins <b.m.collins@larc.nasa.gov> Debian GNU/Linux
UnixGroup Admin - Jordan Systems Inc. bcollins@debian.org
------ -- ----- - - ------- ------- -- The Choice of the GNU Generation
Reply to: