To recap, there was some discussion about whether a versioned
Pre-Depends on dpkg-maintscript-helper [dpkg (>= 1.15.7.2)] is a good
idea for packages in wheezy, with no definite conclusion.
The main complication was such Pre-Depends are not needed for
squeezy-to-wheezy upgrades. Still I believe adding one to the git
package in wheezy would be a good thing, so I'll ask again for your
advice. (Best of all if it comes with an explanation that can be used
to update debian-policy and save the next person from having to ask on
-devel again.)
Reasons mentioned *not* to add such a pre-dependency:
- a smaller Packages file;
- fewer entries in hashtables listing all dependencies;
- fewer iterations in loops over dependencies, etc;
- we discourage Pre-Depends in general:
. Pre-Depends can complicate upgrade paths by constraining
unpack order;
. Pre-Depends can complicate upgrade paths by constraining
configuration order;
. Pre-Depends loops are unbreakable
However, most of those are not very problematic in the case at hand
(dependencies in wheezy on dpkg-maintscript-helper).
- it is not obvious that kind of micro-optimization of dependency lists
is worth much in decreasing the size of Packages and pkgcache.bin;
- because dpkg is essential and the required version is already in
squeeze, the kind of pre-dependency being considered does not
complicate the squeeze-to-wheezy upgrade path.
Reasons mentioned to add a pre-dependency:
- derivatives with different release schedules (e.g., Ubuntu LTS) would
be able to reuse the package without changing it;
- people installing git from sid on lenny systems wouldn't find preinst
mysteriously failing. Such an operation is not guaranteed to work
but why not help out when it's this easy?
- private backports are likely to leave out the pre-depends by mistake
if we don't add it;
Does that seem like a fair summary? Alternatively, what advice would
you give to a packager that wants to (reliably) remove a conffile in
wheezy?
Thanks again for your help.
Jonathan
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