[Pkg-libvirt-maintainers] Bug#637438: Bug#637438: libguestfs0: too tight deps

[Hilko Bengen]

* Christoph Anton Mitterer:

> IMHO, libguestfs0 might have too tight dependencies in some places:
>
> 1) linux-image-2.6-amd64 Apart from that package being deprecated,
> this forces one to use that specific kernel. And it makes uses custom
> kernels (e.g. manually compiled, or make-kpkg impossible).

I think I'll just drop that dependency.

> 2) zerofree, febootstrap Possibly not needed by many users (e.g. this
> not using ext2/3 and/or not building supermin appliances).... can't
> these be just recommends? Of course the code would need to fail
> gracefully if they're not there.

febootstrap is needed to build the filesystem that is used to boot the
VMs which carry out the filesystem operations.

> Also, are these really required by the lib and not the tools building
> on it?

Yes, the library is of limited use without being able to launch VMs.
Quoting from guestfs(3):

,----
| /* Most manipulation calls wont work until youve launched
|  * the handle g.  You have to do this _after_ adding drives
|  * and _before_ other commands.
|  */
| guestfs_launch (g);
`----

It seems to me that your second question came from some sort of
misunderstanding about the library's scope. Maybe it would be a good
idea to improve the description of the library package. Do you have a
suggestion?

Cheers,
-Hilko