[pkg-gnupg-maint] Debian gnupg2 (2.1.11-7+exp1) experimental

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

Hi Markus--

Thanks for writing!

On Thu 2016-04-21 01:04:44 -0400, Dr. Markus Waldeck wrote:
> I noticed that the upgrading of gnupg in experimental will install gnupg2.
> Even by using "apt-get --no-install-recommends" which is my default
> apt-get asks me to install a bunch of new packages: 
> "gnupg-agent libassuan0 libksba8 libnpth0 pinentry-curses".
>
> I use gnupg ONLY in the context of apt and I would assume that this is also true 
> for the overwhelming amount of Debian users.
> For my understanding the gnupg-agent is a convenience feature.

gnupg-agent is the only way to use secret keys in the modern version of
gnupg (for decryption or signing).  this isn't a "convenience function",
but rather a main purpose of gnupg itself.

> So I wonder why it is "Depends" and not "Recommends".

It's not clear to me why apt would require the full gpg for regular use
at all -- it should only need gpgv to verify the Release files.  Maybe
the apt folks (cc'ed here) can tell us why gnupg is a Depends: instead
of a Recommends: for apt?

Regards,

        --dkg