On 28 Dec 2000, John Hasler wrote: > Holger writes: > > I don't quite understand the difference between "Dependency" and > > "Recommendation", two terms that commonly occur when talking about > > Debian's packet management system. > > 'Depends' means that the package will not work without it. 'Recommends' > means that the package maintainer recommends it, but the package will work > without it. > > > I think both have the same result: the packet (usually, unless explicitly > > overridden) gets installed. > > No. dpkg (which is what actually installs packages regardless of the > front-end) will not install packages with unsatisfied dependencies unless > you use '--force-depends'. It ignores 'Recommends' (as does apt). dselect > gets rather insistent about 'Recommends', but its insistence can be > overridden.
I have a related question: what is the difference between Recommends and Suggests? IIRC, dselect insists strenuously that you should install 'Suggested' packages. If you de-select the suggested package it will pop-up the conflict resolution window, if you override it it will do so again once you exit select mode, ... From where I stand it looks like 'suggest' is equivalent to 'depends'. -- Francois Gouget [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fgouget.free.fr/ We are Pentium of Borg. You will be approximated. Division is futile.