[Gambas-user] Complex Extra Dependency

[RICHARD WALKER]

On 14/02/2013, Benoît Minisini <gambas at ...1...> wrote:
> Le 14/02/2013 19:00, John Rose a écrit :
>> Tobi,
>>
>> I wanted to see if anyone had run into this issue before. That was why I
>> was vague.
>>
>> If I create the installation package without specifying gnome-panel as
>> an Extra Dependency but run 'sudo apt-get install
>> --no-install-recommends gnome-panel' before installing the app (from the
>> created installation package), everything is fine.
>>
>> As you say, it would be useful to know if the"--no-install-recommends"
>> option could be implemented in the Extra Dependencies step so that a
>> user could install the app without running the above sudo apt-get
>> commend. Any comments about this facility being made available in Gambas?
>>
>> Regards,
>> John
>>
>
> The installer tries to be distribution-agnostic. What does
> "--no-install-recommends" do ? Normally, when a package is installed,
> only the needed dependencies are installed, not the "recommended"
> packages. Or am I wrong?
>
> --
> Benoît Minisini
>
I cannot speak with any authority on this matter, but Mandriva and
Mageia use a similar mechanism which can be "turned off" using the
urpmi option "--no-suggests". This could well be handled differently
by other distros' package managers for rpms.

The problem I see with this is that suggested packages are
_completely_ at the whim of the packager for any given distribution
and there is less than no guarantee that any two or more distributions
will package the same app with the same suggested additions.

Furthermore, at least as far as rpmdrake (the gui tool using urpmi) is
concerned, it is not obvious to the user which, if any, additional
packages are "required" and which are "suggested".

If we implement a "suggested package" handler in some
package-independent way for Gambas application packages then we might
also need some conditional logic to handle the different requirements
of different distributions.

This means, at the very least, that if a Gambas application developer
determines that on distribution X, used for development, a required
package can be used sans-suggests, then a good deal of research into
other possible target distributions' versions of the same required
package would be needed to determine if the same requirement option
(no suggests) is relevant and/or possible.

Ooops, got a bit carried away there. Hope the logic is clear:-)

Richard