Re: Dependency hell, again (was Re: dasher)

[Julio Merino <jmmv%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 3:41 AM, Magnus Eriksson <magetoo%fastmail.fm@localhost> 
wrote:
>> And, please, please, if you want to make gnome dependencies optional,
>> create a new package, say dasher-gtk, which builds dasher without
>> gnome support.  Don't add a build option to dasher to disable these
>> dependencies.
>
> I've tried to parse that paragraph a dozen times now, and I can't seem to
> make sense of it unless I assume that either the writer or the reader is a
> complete idiot.  Neither seems that likely, so could you clarify?

Have two packages:

- dasher, which builds dasher with full gnome support.

- dasher-gtk (or any other more suitable name), which builds dasher
with a reduced set of dependencies.

Both share the same build code except for a different set of configure
arguments and dependencies.  The two packages conflict with each other
because they install the same set of files.

This is binary-friendly because repositories will have two different
packages that users will be able to choose from.  With package
options, it's not possible.  (In an (my?) ideal world, the end user
would have complete flexibility in choosing the dependencies of a
program *without* having to rebuild it from source.)

Hope it's clearer now.

-- 
Julio Merino