Bug#663175: signing-party: should depend on libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it
On Thu, March 15, 2012 03:10, Roland Hieber wrote: On 09.03.2012 09:19, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote: On Fri, March 9, 2012 05:59, roh...@rohieb.name wrote: Can't locate GD.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl To make the springgraph tool more usable, the package should require libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it. Can you clarify why you think that is the case? There are two considerations here: 1) Springgraph is only one of the tools in the package, and arguably one of the lesser used. Most users therefore won't be needing GD, and it's not a requirement for the large part of the functionality; 2) Apt by default installs recommends, so you would have needed to take explicit action *not* to have libgd-gd2-perl installed. It seems I have another understanding of the difference between Depends and Recommends. In my opinion, Depends should reference other packages which are required in any case to use every part of the package, otherwise parts of it would not work, and Recommends should reference other packages which are not in every case needed to use all parts of the package (I'm thinking of optional plugins or anything like that...). How is this not a case of a package not in every case needed to use all parts of the package? It's only needed to use a very specific part of the package (1 out of 14 tools, and I reckon a minor one). The Debian Policy also states in section 7.2 that Recommends declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency. How is this not the case here? You can use nearly all functionality of signing-party, but to use really all, you need to install Recommends aswell. Also, I am one of the users that have automatic installation of Recommends turned off in aptitude, because I want to keep my system as light-weight as possible. I'm wondering however why this is possible at all if it can lead to installed packages being (partly) unusable. It's possible, but the user that explicitly enables that step is bestowed with the burden of selecting among the Recommended packages those that he also needs. It's not that promoting it to a Depends is without cost. The gd2 library with all its graphics manipulation is rather depends-heavy. Exactly for people like you, who want to keep their systems as 'light-weight' as possible, we offer the option not to install the entire dependency chain of gd2 if you just want to use one or more of the 13 other tools in the package that don't require it at all. I'm not inventing this. See for example the widely used 'devscripts' package which only Recommends packages needed for one of the packaged scripts: http://packages.debian.org/devscripts They do seem to use your suggestion (3) to document which Recommends to install for which tool, though. Cheers, Thijs -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#663175: signing-party: should depend on libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it
On 09.03.2012 09:19, Thijs Kinkhorst wrote: On Fri, March 9, 2012 05:59, roh...@rohieb.name wrote: Can't locate GD.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl To make the springgraph tool more usable, the package should require libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it. Can you clarify why you think that is the case? There are two considerations here: 1) Springgraph is only one of the tools in the package, and arguably one of the lesser used. Most users therefore won't be needing GD, and it's not a requirement for the large part of the functionality; 2) Apt by default installs recommends, so you would have needed to take explicit action *not* to have libgd-gd2-perl installed. It seems I have another understanding of the difference between Depends and Recommends. In my opinion, Depends should reference other packages which are required in any case to use every part of the package, otherwise parts of it would not work, and Recommends should reference other packages which are not in every case needed to use all parts of the package (I'm thinking of optional plugins or anything like that...). The Debian Policy also states in section 7.2 that Recommends declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency. From this understanding of the situation, I deduce that signing-party should Depend on libgd-gd2-perl, since a part of the package (namely springgraph) does not work at all without that dependency. I notice however, that my understanding of the situation is maybe not the opinion of others. And the fact that springgraph is only one of the tools in the package does not apply at all. Also, I am one of the users that have automatic installation of Recommends turned off in aptitude, because I want to keep my system as light-weight as possible. I'm wondering however why this is possible at all if it can lead to installed packages being (partly) unusable. Currently, I'm thinking of three possible solutions to solve this case: 1) Make signing-party Depend on libgd-gd2-perl, with reasons given above 2) Source out springgraph to a separate package which depends on libgd-gd2-perl, and let signing-party Recommend or Suggest that new package 3) As a compromise, let signing-party Recommend libgd-gd2-perl like it is now, but mention in the package description why it is recommended. On the other hand, not everyone reads the package descriptions, so this may be no solution at all. Cheers, Roland -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#663175: signing-party: should depend on libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it
Hi Rohieb, On Fri, March 9, 2012 05:59, roh...@rohieb.name wrote: Can't locate GD.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl To make the springgraph tool more usable, the package should require libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it. Can you clarify why you think that is the case? There are two considerations here: 1) Springgraph is only one of the tools in the package, and arguably one of the lesser used. Most users therefore won't be needing GD, and it's not a requirement for the large part of the functionality; 2) Apt by default installs recommends, so you would have needed to take explicit action *not* to have libgd-gd2-perl installed. Cheers, Thijs -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Bug#663175: signing-party: should depend on libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it
Package: signing-party Version: 1.1.3-1 Severity: normal After a fresh install of signing-party, I tried to use springgraph: $ gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring ./today.keyring --list-sigs | sig2dot | springgraph Color. Can't locate GD.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/bin/springgraph line 187. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/springgraph line 187. To make the springgraph tool more usable, the package should require libgd-gd2-perl, not only recommend it. -- System Information: Debian Release: 6.0.4 APT prefers stable APT policy: (900, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-028stab085.5-ent (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages signing-party depends on: ii gnupg 1.4.10-4 GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep ii libc6 2.11.3-2 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib ii libclass-methodmaker-p 2.15-2Perl module for creating generic m ii libgnupg-interface-per 0.42-3Perl interface to GnuPG ii libmailtools-perl 2.06-1Manipulate email in perl programs ii libmime-tools-perl 5.428-1 Perl5 modules for MIME-compliant m ii libterm-readkey-perl 2.30-4A perl module for simple terminal ii libtext-template-perl 1.45-1Text::Template perl module ii perl 5.10.1-17squeeze3 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction ii qprint 1.0.dfsg.2-2 encoder and decoder for quoted-pri Versions of packages signing-party recommends: ii dialog 1.1-20100428-1 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe ii libgd-gd2-perl 1:2.39-2+b1 Perl module wrapper for libgd - gd pn libpaper-utils none (no description available) ii libtext-iconv-perl 1.7-2converts between character sets in ii postfix [mail-transport 2.7.1-1+squeeze1 High-performance mail transport ag ii whiptail0.52.11-1Displays user-friendly dialog boxe Versions of packages signing-party suggests: pn imagemagick | graphicsmagick- none (no description available) pn mutt none (no description available) ii texlive-latex-recommended 2009-11TeX Live: LaTeX recommended packag pn wipe none (no description available) -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
