Hi,
(Please keep 513...@bugs.debian.org in Cc when replying.)
On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 10:29:17AM +0100, Katharina Sommer wrote:
libproc-daemon-perl is suggested by fai-server. Since faimond is an
optional part of FAI this is perfectly fine imho.
On the other hand I think it is strange behaviour to get an fatal error
while running faimond because of missing dependencies (even suggested).
Agreed.
As far as I understood the suggest field from the Debian Policy Manual
it is used for packages which enhance usefulness (eg. using gpg for
mutt...) of a package.
Yes.
Packages suggested but not installed should not
break execution of a binary/script.
Hrm, imho packages suggested but not installed should not break _core_
functionality of a package. When defining the meaning of Depends, the
policy talks about a significant amount of functionality, so my
opinion should comply with that ;-)
However, if some parts of a package don't work without suggested
packages, that situation should be handled sanely - see below.
At the moment I am thinking of one of the following solutions:
1) Add libproc-daemon-perl to recommends (but what is about perl-tk?).
2) Add a new package fai-server-monitor with proper dependencies.
3) Write a wrapper, to catch the fatal error...
4) Move faimond to /usr/share/doc/fai-server/examples and add a note to
README file. So nobody would expect it to work out of the box.
5) Leave everything as it is. But to be honest, I am using Debian now
for some years and have never seen such an constellation...
I still think that Suggests is fine is this case. However, Perl error
messages are not very helpful to people not familiar with Perl, so the
current situation should be improved. Imho faimond should check for
missing modules and print a warning. That warning could also mention
which packages have to be installed.
At the end, it's up to you :)
The final decision is up to Thomas. I could provide a patch though.
Thomas, any comments?
Cheers,
Sebastian
--
Sebastian tokkee Harl +++ GnuPG-ID: 0x8501C7FC +++ http://tokkee.org/
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin
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