As you may be aware, the TC recently overruled the maintainers of the gnome-core metapackage, deciding that the dependency from gnome-core to network-manager should be weakened from Depends to Recommends. (The full TC decision is reproduced below.)
In response to this the maintainers have uploaded a new version of meta-gnome in which the gnome-core package Recommends network-manager-gnome, as required. However, additionally, they have reintroduced a dependency from gnome to network-manager-gnome, as Depends. See the changes info, also below. The Release Team should be aware that our request to unblock the update to meta-gnome implementing the TC decision does not extend to this latter change to meta-gnome. I am going to try to get the TC to pass another resolution specifically overruling this further decision by the gnome-core maintainers. Ian. Whereas: 1. The gnome-core metapackage is intended to reflect the core of the GNOME desktop environment: the basic tools and subsystems that together constitute GNOME. The gnome metapackage is intended to reflect the broader desktop environment, including extra components and applications. 2. network-manager is the GNOME network control system, and is recommended for most GNOME users. Some Debian GNOME users don't like some of network-manager's behavior and prefer to instead use other tools, either basic ifupdown or other frameworks such as wicd. 3. In squeeze, the gnome metapackage lists network-manager in Recommends but not Depends. In wheezy, currently, network-manager has moved from gnome to gnome-core, and from Recommends to Depends. This represents a substantially increased insistance that users of the GNOME metapackages have network-manager installed; specifically, there is no longer any way to install any but the most minimal GNOME metapackage (gnome-session) without installing network-manager, and users who have gnome or gnome-core installed but have removed or never installed network-manager will have network-manager installed during an upgrade from squeeze. 4. For most applications and components, the only drawback of this would be some additional disk space usage, since the application, despite being installed, wouldn't need to be used. However, network-manager assumes that, if it is installed, it should attempt to manage the system's network configuration. It attempts to avoid overriding local manual configuration, but it isn't able to detect all cases where the user is using some other component or system to manage networking. The user has to take separate, explicit (and somewhat unusual for the average user) action to disable network-manager after it has been installed. 5. The Technical Committee believes that this will cause undesireable behavior for upgrades from squeeze, and (of somewhat lesser importance) will make it more difficult than necessary for GNOME users to swap network management components, something for which there appears to be noticable demand. We therefore believe that network-manager should be moved to Recommends in gnome-core. 6. Please note that this is not a general statement about GNOME components. It is very specific to network-manager because all of the following apply: (i) The package takes action automatically because it is installed, rather than being a component that can either be run or not at the user's choice. (ii) The package has historically been recommended rather than listed as a dependency, so existing Debian users are used to that behavior and will expect it to be preserved during upgrades. (ii) There is both demonstrable, intentional widespread replacement of that package by Debian GNOME users and no significant loss of unrelated GNOME desktop functionality by replacing it with a different component. If any of these points did not apply, the situation would be significantly different. Therefore: 7. The Technical Committee overrules the decision of the gnome-core metapackage maintainers. The dependency from gnome-core to network-manager-gnome should be downgraded to Recommends. 8. The Technical Committee requests that the Release Managers unblock the update to implement this decision, so that this change may be released in wheezy. Format: 1.8 Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2012 11:58:56 +0200 Source: meta-gnome3 Binary: gnome-core gnome gnome-desktop-environment gnome-platform-devel gnome-core-devel gnome-devel gnome-dbg gnome-api-docs Architecture: source all amd64 Version: 1:3.4+2 Distribution: unstable Urgency: low Maintainer: Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org> Changed-By: Josselin Mouette <j...@debian.org> Description: gnome - Full GNOME Desktop Environment, with extra components gnome-api-docs - API reference documentation for the GNOME libraries gnome-core - GNOME Desktop Environment -- essential components gnome-core-devel - GNOME Desktop Environment -- development components gnome-dbg - debugging symbols for the GNOME desktop environment gnome-desktop-environment - The GNOME Desktop Environment - transitional package gnome-devel - GNOME Desktop Environment -- development tools gnome-platform-devel - GNOME development platform Closes: 645656 681757 Changes: meta-gnome3 (1:3.4+2) unstable; urgency=low . * Depend on g-tweak-tool, it is too useful to be left out. * Update epochs on a pair of dependencies. * Add architecture tweaks for unavailable packages: rygel, aisleriot, seed. Closes: #681757. * Move network-manager dependency to gnome. Only recommend it in gnome-core. This should be in compliance with the Crusade. Closes: #645656. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-release-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20577.50405.298985.670...@chiark.greenend.org.uk