Re: Bug#4238: mirror requires perl

[Ian Jackson]

Dirk Eddelbuettel writes ("Bug#4238: mirror requires perl"):
...
> On the other hand, we seem to have (had ?) a policy of relying on (at least a
> rudimentary) perl in the base system --- but I cannot find anything on that
> in the programmers and policy manuals of dpkg-1.3.8. So should timezone.pl
> move into base? Comments? Ian, Bruce?

I propose the following policy, which is roughly what we have at the
moment:

A basic version of Perl is shipped with the base system.  This should
be a separate package, say `perlbase'.  If you only need this you
don't need a dependency.

If you need extra modules, &c, you must declare a dependency on
`perl'.

Ian.

Bug#4238: mirror requires perl

[Dirk . Eddelbuettel]

  Susan> Package: mirror 
  Susan> Version: 2.8-6
  Susan> 
  Susan> The control file for mirror should be changed to show that it
  Susan> requires the installation of the full Perl package, not just the
  Susan> small package included in the base system (what's missing is a
  Susan> timezone.pl file).
  Susan> 
  Susan> Alternatively, the perl package in the base system needs to have the
  Susan> timezone.pl file added to it.

Thanks for pointing this out.  But what shall I do?

On one hand, 16 packages directly depend on perl.[1] I could add a Depends.

On the other hand, we seem to have (had ?) a policy of relying on (at least a
rudimentary) perl in the base system --- but I cannot find anything on that
in the programmers and policy manuals of dpkg-1.3.8. So should timezone.pl
move into base? Comments? Ian, Bruce?


[1] [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~> zgrep "^depends.*perl" 
/mirror/debian/rex/binary-i386/Packages.gz | wc -l
 16 


--
Dirk Eddelb"uttel http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd

Bug#4238: mirror requires perl

[Susan G. Kleinmann]

Package: mirror
Version: 2.8-6

The control file for mirror should be changed to show that it requires
the installation of the full Perl package, not just the small package
included in the base system (what's missing is a timezone.pl file).

Alternatively, the perl package in the base system needs to have the
timezone.pl file added to it.

Susan Kleinmann