[Cupt-devel] Bug#681508: Bug#681508: cupt: please clarify how Recommends are handled

[Eugene V. Lyubimkin]

Hi Jonathan,

On 2012-07-13 14:38, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Gergely Nagy wrote[1]:
> 
> > Does Recommends guarantee that the platform will stay intact, unless I
> > explicitly remove a recommended package? No?

I am not sure what is "platform" here.

> I have no idea whether it does (in cupt) or not, so please document it.
> 
> Recommends means that the package is needed in all but unusual
> installations.  If you have not declared by explicitly removing the
> package that yours is an unusual installation, a normal upgrade should
> not allow this necessary package to be removed.

No, not quite. There is no thing like 'normal upgrade', handling
is (and IMO should be) common for all kinds of requests, including
partial and "peppered with additional requirements" upgrades. An example
of additional requirement may be "install new package X which conflicts
with a recommended package".

General handling of soft dependencies is documented in [1]. Cupt tries
to keep existing recommends (by default) unless something more important
[2] pops out. By adjusting [3] user can adjust "importance" of
Recommends in Cupt.

Finally, console front-end in wheezy notifies you [4] if existing or new
Recommends is not satisfied in the proposed solution (only if
installed/keeping Recommends is turned on, of course).

Does that answer your question?

[1] http://people.debian.org/~jackyf/cupt2/tutorial.html#toc48
[2] http://people.debian.org/~jackyf/cupt2/tutorial.html#toc64
[3] cupt.conf(5)/cupt::resolver::score::unsatisfied-recommends
[4] http://people.debian.org/~jackyf/cupt2/tutorial.html#specifying_more_package_expression_arguments

-- 
Eugene V. Lyubimkin aka JackYF, JID: jackyf.devel(maildog)gmail.com
C++ GNU/Linux developer, Debian Developer