* Shawn Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-07-25 19:48]:
> Stephen Hahn wrote:
>> * Shawn Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-07-24 23:55]:
>>> Danek Duvall wrote:
>>>> With recursive uninstall working again in my workspace, I've discovered
>>>> that even removing a leaf package likely requires a recursive uninstall,
>>>> because slim_install has a "required" dependency on it.
>>>>
>>>> That leads me to believe that slim_install is doing the wrong thing with
>>>> its dependencies.  They should probably be optional instead of required.
>>>> Of course, then you actually need some mechanism to make installation of
>>>> slim_install actually install all its dependencies.  We have the notion of
>>>> a "require optional" policy, but weak support for it.
>>>>
>>>> My idea was to have a commandline flag for install that would turn on
>>>> following optional dependencies just for packages specified on the
>>>> commandline (optional dependencies specified further down in the tree would
>>>> respect only the image-wide policy).
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately, that has the downside that for people actually wanting to
>>>> install slim_install or redistributable (or, more pointedly, gcc-dev or
>>>> ss-dev, which would naturally have the same change made to them), they'd
>>>> have to know to specify the magic flag, or they'd just get a single,
>>>> seemingly empty package installed.
>>>>
>>>> Any thoughts?
>>> I would rather not break the convenience or ease of "pkg install ss-dev".
>>>
>>> New users shouldn't have to know about a special flag or any options to 
>>> get that to work right.
>>
>>   You're both right.  Both incorporating and group packages should have
>>   optional dependencies, but group packages should have a package tag
>>   that says, "for install, include optional dependencies", so that users
>>   (and GUIs) don't need to remember some variable flag.  Perhaps
>>   pkg.policy.install_optional?
>
> Assuming you're talking about a package specific policy and not a global 
> one that a user/administrator manages.

  Yes, although a similar image-wide one has been discussed.

> With most incorporation or group packages, I believe that the user is 
> inherently committing to installing optional dependencies so policy 
> controls (or prompts) shouldn't be necessary for them.
 
  No:  examine pkg:/entire (the ur-incorporation) and contrast with
  ss-dev.  The user's commitments for each of these two classes of
  package (and the reasons that a distribution producer would introduce
  them) are different.

> We also need to be more informative about what we are installing.  As much 
> really be nice to get prompted if installing a package is going to install 
> additional dependencies.

  I don't think the latter is necessary, actually.  Dan's still poking
  around verbose and debug, but I agree about having more output
  available.

  - Stephen
  
-- 
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