Bug#953299: fusioninventory-agent: please review the hwdata dependency

[Pino Toscano]

Source: fusioninventory-agent
Version: 1:2.5.2-1
Severity: wishlist
Control: block 944500 by -1

Hi,

currently a binary of the fusioninventory-agent source depends on hwdata.

This is most probably done because fusioninventory-agent requires (or can
optionally use) any of pci.ids, pnp.ids, and usb.ids.
Considering that:
- pci.ids and usb.ids have always been provided by pciutils and
  usbutils instead of hwdata upstream, with symlinks provided by the
  hwdata Debian package
- pciutils, and usbutils provide also utilities
- pci.ids and usb.ids were recently split in their own packages
- hwdata at the moment depends on pciutils, and usbutils
it is a good occasion to review the hwdata dependency.

The first checklist is package relationships to add to the binaries of
the fusioninventory-agent source:
1) pci.ids: if the pci.ids file can be used from the /usr/share/misc
   directory
2) usb.ids: if the usb.ids file can be used from the /usr/share/misc
   directory
3) pciutils: if any of the /usr/bin/lspci, /usr/bin/setpci, and
   /usr/sbin/update-pciids commands is used
4) usbutils: if any of the /usr/bin/lsusb, /usr/bin/usb-devices,
   /usr/bin/usbhid-dump, and /usr/bin/usbreset commands is used

The second checklist is criteria to determine whether the hwdata
dependency must be kept:
a) the pci.ids file is used only if in the /usr/share/hwdata directory
b) the usb.ids file is used only if in the /usr/share/hwdata directory
c) the /usr/share/hwdata/pnp.ids file is used
If none of the criteria above match, please drop the hwdata dependency.

As it can be implied from the two checklists above, a perfectly valid
resolution of this bug is to close it in case there are no changes
required. If you do so, please leave a note describing the situation,
and how hwdata is used, so it is easier for the hwdata maintainer
(currently me) to know the status.

Starting from version 0.290-2, hwdata is "Multi-Arch: foreign", so
there is no problem using it also in "Multi-Arch: same" packages.

In case of questions/doubts/etc, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks!
-- 
Pino