[Pkg-gtkpod-devel] Bug#658538: Further explanation

[Matěj Laitl]

On 4. 2. 2012 Chow Loong Jin wrote:
> Sounds like Depends would be the right choice here...
> 
> > This would crate circular dependency between libgpod4{,-nogtk} and
> > libgpod-
> > common, but I think this is okay as they come from the same source
> > package.
> 
> ...But this sounds like a real problem. It's not okay for circular
> dependencies to happen even if they're from the same source package[1].
> Perhaps we'll have to just go with Recommends.
> 
> Thanks for spotting this before I made the upload.
> 
> > [...]
> 
> [1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/06/msg02111.html (#5 under
> Why?)

I see. Unfortunately, #1 under How? in [1] cannot be applied as some 
executables from libgpod-common actually link libgpod:
strohel at edgy ~ $ ldd /lib/udev/ipod-set-info /usr/bin/ipod-read-sysinfo-
extended | grep gpod
        libgpod.so.4 => /usr/lib64/libgpod.so.4 (0x00007f198d192000)
        libgpod.so.4 => /usr/lib64/libgpod.so.4 (0x00007fb3aa949000)

How strong is the Recommends dependency? E.g. when an an ordinary user 
installs amarok from her favourite gui/cli, which then pulls libgpod, will it 
pull libgpod-common if it were "Recommended" by libgpod?

If so, this kind of dependency would be fine.

Disclaimer: I'm not a Debian user (I'm rather a Gentoo guy) so I have nearly 
no knowledge of .deb packaging system, nonetheless I enjoy such cross-distro 
knowledge sharing.

		Matěj