Thijs Kinkhorst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Mon, 2005-11-21 at 16:26 +0100, Goswin von Brederlow wrote: >> foo depends on foo-data. But foo-data does NOT depend on foo. >> >> So an "apt-get install foo-data", while being useless, is consistent >> for dpkg. After that you would end up with a menu entry for foo but no >> foo binary. > > If package foo-data is useless when foo is not installed, foo-data > should depend on package foo. This follows from policy manual 7.2: "The > Depends field should be used if the depended-on package is required for > the depending package to provide a significant amount of > functionality.". Or am I missing something here? > > Thijs
What functionality does the foo-data package loose if you purge foo? Does "less /usr/share/foo/textfile" or "qiv /usr/share/foo/image" suddenly stop working? On the other hand, what functionality does foo loose if foo-data is missing? You can't have both depending on the other without causing a depends loop, which is bad and easily causes install/purge failures. Think about which dependency ensures a working binary to the user and which only means the installation makes sense. MfG Goswin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]