[ On Sunday, May 28, 2000 at 05:32:17 (-0500), Richard Rauch wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: CVS commit: pkgsrc
>
> Possibly the dependancies are made so tight because that's all that the
> pkg creator is able to test?  It _is_ a serious problem, I agree.
> 
> The problem, I think, is that creators of pkgsrc dependancies have to
> choose between being lax (risking the construction of packages that don't
> work, or that have subtle problems) vs. being too strict (requiring extra
> updates of packages).  I suspect that not many pkg creators are in a
> position to really test out which versions are required, and simply record
> the versions that _they_ have and that _they_ believe to work.
> 
> If you believe that a restriction is too tight, perhaps you cand send-pr a
> patch to the package?

You can't make much choice when you're using shared libraries without
having intimate knowledge of the API of the library (something pkgsrc
maintainers should *not* have to trouble themselves with).

However if all packages were statically linked with all non-system
libraries then you don't even have to declare any install or runtime
dependencies at all in the first place -- just build-time ones.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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