Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On 20000829T092919+0200, Paul Slootman wrote:
>> Really? I doubt that the package "build-essential" (to name a
>> random example :-) needs the C compiler.
>
>You misread me (or did I express my badly?). I mean that "there exists
>at least one program such that for all Debian developers, if said Debian
>developer packages said program, a C compiler is needed". The same does
>not hold for debhelper, since all programs *can* be packaged without
>debhelper.
>
>I'm trying here to assert that there exists a package for which a C
>compiler is essential for building. This is, IMHO, a necessary (but
>not sufficient) condition for build-essentiality.
In addition to the definition, would a useful rule of thumb in arguments
about "build-essentiality" be that the lists of essential and
build-essential packages together comprise a minimal set of packages
central to the Debian system [1] among which circular build dependencies
are acceptable?
[1] This is a kludge; I'm trying to avoid having my description include
compilers for other languages which depend on themselves to build,
but which are sufficiently rarely used that making them
build-essential would be foolish.
--
Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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