Bug#668394: debian-policy: Spurious virtual packages "mp3-encoder"/"mp3-decoder"

[Charles Plessy]

[Dear package maintainers, you have been CCed because we are considering to
remove "mp3-decoder" from the Policy's list of virtual packages.]

Le Sat, Aug 03, 2013 at 04:04:56PM +0200, Kurt Roeckx a écrit :
> 
> I'm also for removing mp3-decoder, since I have no idea if that is
> something that just converts it to a uncompressed format, or plays
> it.

I thought about this, but there are a couple of packages depending on it as
alternative and I felt reluctant, but on a second view, it looks like
mp3-decoder is not used consistently and currently serves no role.

	$ for field in Depends Recommends Suggests Provides; do grep-aptavail -F $field mp3-decoder -s Package,$field ; done
	
	Package: plait
	Recommends: mpg123 | mpg321 | amarok | mp3-decoder

	Package: nautilus
	Suggests: eog, evince | pdf-viewer, totem | mp3-decoder, xdg-user-dirs, tracker

	Package: nemo
	Suggests: eog, evince | pdf-viewer, totem | mp3-decoder, xdg-user-dirs

	Package: mpg321
	Provides: mp3-decoder, mpg123

	Package: opencubicplayer
	Provides: audio-mixer, mp3-decoder, mp3-encoder, x-audio-mixer

	Package: mpg123
	Provides: mp3-decoder, mpg123-oss-3dnow

	Package: vlc
	Provides: mp3-decoder

	Package: vlc-nox
	Provides: mp3-decoder

Would there be an objection to remove "mp3-decoder" from the Policy's list of
virtual packages ?

By the way, there are more open bugs related to virtual packages, and some of
them probably do not require extensive knowledge.  Any volunteer ?

Have a nice Sunday,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan