Bug#1110689: gvfs-backends recommends wsdd which is not available in trixie

[Simon McVittie]

On Sun, 10 Aug 2025 at 07:29:46 +0200, Franck wrote:
>Package gvfs-backends 1.57.2-2 in trixie recommends wsdd.
>https://packages.debian.org/trixie/gvfs-backends
>
>But wsdd is not available in trixie:
>$ rmadison wsdd
>wsdd       | 2:0.7.0-2.1   | oldstable  | source, all
>wsdd       | 2:0.8-5       | unstable   | source, all
>https://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&keywords=wsdd
>
>Recommending wsdd2 may be an alternative (I did not check if gvfs-backends works with it) ?
>$ rmadison wsdd2
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.1    | oldstable      | source, amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2    | stable         | source, amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2    | testing        | source, amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2    | unstable       | source, amd64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2    | unstable-debug | source
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2+b1 | stable         | arm64
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2+b1 | testing        | arm64
>wsdd2      | 1.8.7+dfsg-1.2+b1 | unstable       | arm64

As per https://launchpad.net/bugs/2081735 wsdd appears to be used to 
browse SMB/CIFS shared drives from Windows 10 or later, but I don't have 
Windows servers on my LAN, so I can't really test this functionality.

Alessandro, you fixed LP#2081735 - do you know whether wsdd2 is 
sufficient API-compatible that gvfs can use it? I'm not sure I 
understand the relationship between wsdd and wsdd2, or their maintenance 
status - from their Homepage fields it seems like they might be 
completely unrelated projects with confusingly similar names?

Strictly speaking, an unsatisfiable Recommends is a Policy violation 
(§2.2.1) so if nothing else gvfs-daemons' Recommends should be reduced 
to a Suggests at least in trixie, assuming the stable release managers 
don't want to add wsdd in 13.1.

wsdd was only a Suggests for several months, and browsing network 
shares doesn't seem like crucial functionality to me, more like a 
nice-to-have. Perhaps gvfs-backends could have it as a Suggests, and 
some larger metapackage like gnome or ubuntu-desktop could elevate that 
to Recommends if desired?

     smcv