Bug#342341: eclipse: too many unneeded dependencies

[Michael Koch]

On Sat, Dec 10, 2005 at 02:53:13PM +0100, Erwan David wrote:
> Le Sat 10/12/2005, Stephan Michels disait
> > On 12/7/05, Erwan David <erwan at rail.eu.org> wrote:
> > > Package: eclipse
> > > Severity: normal
> > >
> > > sudo apt-get -u install eclipse
> > > Password:
> > > Reading package lists... Done
> > > Building dependency tree... Done
> > > The following extra packages will be installed:
> > >   dbus-1 dbus-glib-1 eclipse-jdt eclipse-jdt-common eclipse-pde
> > >   eclipse-pde-common eclipse-platform eclipse-platform-common eclipse-rcp
> > >   eclipse-rcp-common eclipse-source gconf2 gconf2-common gnome-keyring
> > >   gnome-mime-data junit libbcel-java libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common
> > >   libbonoboui2-0 libbonoboui2-common libcommons-beanutils-java
> > >   libcommons-collections-java libcommons-collections3-java
> > >   libcommons-dbcp-java libcommons-digester-java libcommons-el-java
> > >   libcommons-fileupload-java libcommons-launcher-java libcommons-logging-java
> > >   libcommons-modeler-java libcommons-pool-java libfam0c102 libgconf2-4
> > >   libgnome-keyring0 libgnome2-0 libgnome2-common libgnomecanvas2-0
> > >   libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0 libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0
> > >   libgnomevfs2-common libhal-storage0 libhal0 libjsch-java liblog4j1.2-java
> > >   liblucene-java liblucene-java-doc libmx4j-java liborbit2 libregexp-java
> > >   libscrollkeeper0 libservlet2.4-java libsmbclient libswt3.1-gtk-java
> > >   libswt3.1-gtk-jni libtomcat5-java mozilla-browser scrollkeeper
> > >   shared-mime-info zenity
> > >
> > > Which means 195 MB on disk...
> > >
> > > eclipse does not need gnome, so there is a dependency problem on this
> > > side. Same thing with mozilla-browser.
> > 
> > The gnome libraries are needed for SWT, for example
> > org.eclipse.swt.program.Program to get informations about the mine
> > type and
> > icons etc. for a given file.
> 
> False, eclipse and swt work perfectly without gnome.
> 
> > It seems that the SWT libraries handle the case if the
> > gnome libs doesn't exist properly. But I don't think it's a good idea
> > to remove the dependencies. Maybe a solution is to use recommendations
> > instead.
> 
> Is it a good idea to impose gnome to those who do not want it ?
> 
> > And the dependency to mozila-broser is needed for the SWT Browser widget. You
> > should be able to use firefox instead, but nevertheless a browser is needed.
> 
> eclipse works without a browser installed. You put restrictions on its use...
> 
> > > In any case this makes the package uninstallable here (no gnome).
> > 
> > Sad to hear, but to be honest if you can't spare 195 MB of diskspace
> > then you won't
> > have much fun with Eclipse.
> 
> Its more a matter of policy : you as maintainer put arbitrary restrictions on the use of the software.
> 
> > I tend to tag the report as WONTFIX, but wait on an opinion from Michael Koch.
> 
> Do debian policy allow maintainers to include dependencies which are not
> upstream ?
> 
> I do not want to use gnome, f I follow you I should stop using debian ?

You are wrong. The dependencies ARE upstream too. With the stuff missing Eclipse
is just crippled. A not working help system (because the web browser is missing)
is a good example for a broken application.


Cheers,
Michael
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