Control: forcemerge 160247 -1 On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 10:32:58PM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: > Package: dpkg > Version: 1.15.3.1 > Severity: wishlist > > In bug#542095, I think the right solution is to make it possible for the user > to specify "overrides" on package dependencies (e.g. to say "install gnome, > but ignore the dependency on network-manager"). > > The idea is the following: normally, hard-dependencies represent situations > where the other package is absolutely needed for the package to work > properly. Now, clearly sometimes this rule requires interpretation to decide > whether it's really a hard dependency or just a recommends. > In the case of meta-packages, hard-dependencies are actually pretty much > never true. So it'd be OK for a power-user to decide not to install the > dependency. I can see several ways to provide such a feature. An easy one > would be to alow users to shoot themselves in the foot and override *any* > dependency. A more discriminating one could let the user only do it for > those dependencies known to be a bit soft (e.g. the dependencies of > meta-packages, or other dependencies specially specified as such; that would > be halfway between a hard dependency and a "recommends"), so a user could for > example remove "hal" while still installing xserver-xorg because he knows > he'll write his xorg.conf accordingly. >
I'm forcemerging that with that other bug about people wanting to violate the policy on Depends. -- Julian Andres Klode - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/. Be friendly, do not top-post, and follow RFC 1855 "Netiquette". - If you don't I might ignore you.
