Source: devscripts Version: 2.10.69 Forwarded from: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/devscripts/+bug/485264
The inclusion of 'bsd-mailx | mailutils' in Recommends combined with Recommends-by-default causes a full-blown MTA (Postfix/Exim) install on laptops/desktop that do not already have or need one. Historically, an MTA was previously only suggested (see following commit and bug). The included utilities all fail gracefully in the case of there not being an MTA. Previous commit (wholesale Suggests->Recommends migration): ------------------------- +devscripts (2.10.23) unstable; urgency=low + + * Move the current Suggests: to Recommends: so that they are pulled in by + default but may be removed if desired (Closes: #474559) + * bug/presubj: Update in line with the change to Recommends: + + -- Adam D. Barratt <a...@adam-barratt.org.uk> Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:53:46 +0100 ------------------------- Bug (noting that some items have already been moved back to Suggests): ------------------------- http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=474559 ------------------------- Original LP bug report: ------------------------- Because Recommended packages get installed by default, installing devscripts on a fresh install pulls in a complete MTA as an indirect result of Recommending these mailers. Setting up an MTA is not easy to automate, so users will either be pestered with Debconf questions and may need to edit configuration files and do testing to get the MTA running succesfully and securely, or they will have to manually uninstall it after installing devscripts, or they will need to install it with apt-get --no-install-recommends and cherry-pick all the other packages they need. This is IMHO overkill for most users and defeats the purpose of Recommending certain packages. All of the utilities which might need access to a mailer are described as such in the package description, and all will fail gracefully (as far as I can tell) with a descriptive message if one is not available. Compare with the reportbug package, whose sole purpose is reporting bugs by email, which merely Suggests a mailer. Kind regards, Alain ------------------------- Patch against git head to follow as soon as debbugs sends me this bug number for the changelog. -Paul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
