* J. Daniel Schmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Nov 06. 2008 20:45]: > Hi, > > This is a question to the old YaST hackers: > > I heard the rumor that there once was a policy that YaST packages should > not require other (non-YaST) packages directy but rather do a check at > runtime if everything is there and ask to install packages if missing.
Its not a rumor, its a fact ;-) > > There are valid use cases for this where I can see that this makes > sense, eg. you configure the user authentication method LDAP and > pam_ldap is missing. It does not make sense to include pam_ldap then in > some YaST package because it is required due to a configuration > setting. > > My question relates to yast2-x11 where the first action of the module > is, to check if its required packages are there. > IMHO these packages should be required by the package directly. > Btw. packages that do not exist at all are filtered out of this list. > > If these packages for some reason are not available for the current > architecture or system then this very YaST module should not have been > installed in the first place. Not quite. The rule is: YaST should be there, even in a minimal installation, to guide the user. The use case is: User does a minimal, textmode installation. Maybe because of limited bandwidth, maybe because its a headless (without graphics card) server. Now he wants to configure X11. YaST is there to help and on starting yast2-x11, the user is prompted to install missing packages. Now the question is: Should a YaST module do the test for missing packages at every start ? I'd say no ! This test should only be done at first start. If there's already a configuration (e.g. for X11), the YaST module should assume all packages are installed and user wants a reconfiguration only. Testing for missing packages should be optional (e.g. via menu item or button) in this case. > > > So my question (finally) is: > Are there any technical reasons (and what exactly) why we used to do it > this way over the years or will it hurt anybody if I require the needed > packages directly?? Its not technical, its more product management ;-) Hth, Klaus --- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
