Bug#1063903: gi-docgen: Are -doc dependencies necessary?

[Simon McVittie]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2024 at 09:23:03 -0500, Jeremy Bícha wrote:
>When GNOME libraries used gtk-doc for their API documentation, we
>needed to have Build-Depends for dependent documentation (like gtk4
>might need the glib docs installed)
...
>check whether those extra
>dependencies can be dropped for libraries that are now using
>gi-docgen.

My understanding is that they can be dropped, because gi-docgen doesn't 
parse installed documentation in this way, and I've gradually been doing 
that as I get to it. (It is not a high priority.)

For packages that are already reproducible, the easy way to find out is 
to build the package in a minimal environment (preferably sbuild), drop 
the -doc B-D, and build it again. The resulting binary packages are 
likely to be identical to the reference build.

     smcv