Bug#649376: gnome: Dependency on totem-mozilla violating Debian-Policy

[Oliver Rompcik]

Dear Josselin,

thanks for your answer. I agree with you in one point: This seems to be
wasting time.

It's not about metapackages or nut, this is a substantial question. But we
are on controversy roads. As said, the (meta)packages gnome is essential
and one of the most installed.

Try to remove totem-mozilla on a fresh install. This will uninstall gnome,
the network manager, update-manager and many many more. Stupid.

Seems to be time for a new meta gnome-minimal.

With best regards,
Oliver Rompcik

Josselin Mouette schrieb:
> Le lundi 21 novembre 2011 à 00:20 +0100, Oliver Rompcik a écrit :
>> That's an non-logical abstraction. Following this the metapackage could
>> be
>> dependend on everything.
>
> Sure. Feel free to package a ?everything? metapackage, that depends on
> all packages in Debian. It should come very handy.
>
>> But following Debian Policy, expecially Chapter 5 and 7, a dependency is
>> defined absolute precisely. It is written for "depends" that "This
>> declares an absolute dependency". And here the requirement for such a
>> dependency is not met.
>
> Why are you wasting so much time splitting hair? Is it your job, or just
> a hobby?
>
>> But I'd like to repeat my question, which is still unanswered:
>>
>> Is there any technical reason for gnome beeing dependend on
>> totem-mozilla
>> (and why especially totem-mozilla, not for example mozilla-plugin-vlc)?
>
> BECAUSE METAPACKAGES ARE NOT A SUPERMARKET.
> Can you read?
>
>> Or is it just YOUR preference, beeing one of totem's authors?
>
> No. Totem is part of the GNOME applications moduleset. VLC is not. VLC
> will probably never be, since it has very poor integration with GNOME.
> And since METAPACKAGES ARE NOT A SUPERMARKET, you don?t get to choose.
>
>> You know, gnome is an essential package
>
> I don?t see the ?Essential: yes? tag.
>
>> So what stands technically against altering the Depends to Suggests??
>
> Nothing. This is not a technical issue. It?s just that METAPACKAGES ARE
> NOT A SUPERMARKET. You don?t like metapackages, you are not forced to
> use them.
>
> --
>  .''`.      Josselin Mouette
> : :' :
> `. `'
>   `-
>
>