On Fri 12 Jul 2019 at 20:21:08 +0300, Reco wrote: > Hi. > > On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 12:24:49PM -0300, Jonas Smedegaard wrote: > > Quoting Reco (2019-07-12 09:34:17) > > > On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 09:13:29AM -0300, Jonas Smedegaard wrote: > > > > Quoting Reco (2019-07-12 09:01:33) > > > > > > > Disabling installing Recommends by default also helps a great > > > > > > > deal with all those dependencies you don't want. > > > > > > > > > > > > Above may break your system in confusing to debug ways, > > > > > > > > > > Rly? Recommends are called that for a reason. > > > > > > > > Yes, and the reason is well defined: Packages requires in "all but > > > > unusual installations." - quoted from Debian Policy ยง7.2. > > > > > > This only shows us that one can prove anything by using selective > > > quoting. Full quote, btw is: > > > > > > This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency. > > > The Recommends field should list packages that would be found together > > > with this one in all but unusual installations. > > > > > > > > > Therefore Debian Policy explicitly says that Recommends are not > > > required. > > > > Sorry if you feel that I mislead you by quoting narrowly. > > I fail to recognize how your larger quote changes my point of mine, > > however. > > I see nothing to apologise for. You made some bold claims, I showed they > do not universally apply. Each of us stayed at their respective > opinions, let's leave it at that. > > > Indeed Debian policy do not _require_ recommendations. They do however > > recommend to install them except in unusual installations. > > Turning off recommendations is saying "this system is unusual in all > > possible ways" which I insist is wrong and bad advice! > > And the key word here is "recommend". > One of the biggest strengths in the Free Software lies in the putting > the user in control.
Fine. > Mandating to install certain software, assuming that there's only one > "right" way of doing things, using scare tactics like "system is > unusual" - this reeks of non-free software from world-known commercial > entities, and limiting the control of the user over their software. I do not think any of that diatribe is the intention of Policy. > I say - if the user wants to "break" a system by not installing the > Recommends - let them. Whenever it's curiosity, a way of learning > something new or just a wish to do an OS liposuction. > Either way it won't break (a hint - Recommends weren't always the > default), or the user will learn something new in a process. That's fine too. > Besides, they don't call Debian the Universal OS for nothing. It can > tolerate the surprising amount of "breakage". mc recommends unzip. The OS will get along perfectly well without it. It's the user who who has to tolerate the breakage. -- Brian. > > Reco >
