[Aptitude-devel] Bug#696411: aptitude: Missing dependency on apt?

[Daniel Hartwig]

On 20 December 2012 22:19, Axel Beckert <abe at debian.org> wrote:
> So since apt is not essential, but aptitude needs some binaries out of
> that package to perform very common actions, aptitude must have a
> dependency on apt

Such a dependency belongs to libapt-pkg, or to move the basic
method drivers to that package.  It is libapt-pkg that uses
them, aptitude only requests to acquire some file and knows nothing
about any of these drivers or their usage.

This otherwise requires adding such a dependency to all libapt-pkg
consumers.

I recall this may have been discussed this year, though do not
recall the outcome.

> (or at least recommend it).

Yes, packages other than apt do also provide method drivers, and—at
least in theory—could provide an alternative to the base set.