Am Freitag 18 Mai 2007 01:56 schrieb Don Armstrong: > The recommends should be a set such that you'd want to install them, > unless you know specifically why you don't. [In the majority of cases > that I've personally run into, this means "unusual" setups like a > separate database server, stripped installs, etc.] > > Moreover, the information necessary to explain what packages that are > Recommends: or Suggests: actually do and the additional features they > require is not something that can be easily jammed into the > Description without making the description uselessly long. The > Description should give you enough information to figure out whether > or not you want to install a package, not telling you how to use the > package or the descriptions of other packages that the package > Recommends: or Suggests:. That kind of documentation really belongs in > README.Debian or other documentation included with the package.
The description should not explain what the other package is but _what_ it does to the selected package. Example: ucf recommends debconf-utils. The description of debconf-utils tells me nothing about what it actually does (really could be more verbose) and I cannot draw the connection line to ucf. The question that arises is: "Do I also need it if I am not a debconf developer?". I would say no based on the description of debconf-utils just because I have not the faintest idea what ucf does with those. And no, I do not want to read all manpages and README.Debian files for packages that maybe are 4th-level dependencies of a selected package (although I look at all of them in aptitude). HS
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