Subject: Re: [X2Go-Dev] Bug#1439: latest release of x2goclient for Ubuntu has dependency on hello

From: Mihai Moldovan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2020 17:00:27 +0100

* On 2/15/20 4:23 PM, Ulrich Sibiller wrote:
> 1. why choose hello and not something that's on the system anyway,
> like the kernel or bin-utils or some X package?

I'm not a DD, so my answer isn't authoritative and Mike#1 can probably explain
this better, but optionaldep | hello seems to be a very common pattern in Debian
packaging. If a DD sees such a dependency, he'll recognize it and its meaning
immediately.

Depending on a package in the base system set (i.e., those marked "essential")
MIGHT be easier, but this is seems to be generally frowned upon because it makes
degrading essential-set packages to optional ones more difficult, if I recall
correctly. I've also read that normal (i.e., optional, non-core/essential)
packages should generally NOT depend upon packages in the essential-set but just
assume them to available unconditionally.

> 2. why do you want to mak x2gokdriveclient (or is it x2gokdrive?)  a
> hard dependency? Nobody needs it unless he's wants to use it. People
> can use x2go without it. So I see it as optional either way...

Hm, Mike#1 wanted it to be a hard dependency, but moving it to Recommends might
make sense after all, since other software that X2Go Client *can* make use of,
like FreeRDP2, is also not strictly necessary and merely a recommended package.

Note that Debian installs recommended packages by default (unless users
explicitly configure or tell the package manager not to do this), so user
experience wouldn't be affected by that change anyway.

Mihai