The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: dpkg unpack vs. configure

On Thu, 2 Jan 1997, Christoph Lameter wrote:

> quake-lib just contains the data for quake. Certainly it does not make
> sense to use that library without anything to use the data. It also does
> not make sense to not have an application that uses libc6 when having
> libc6 installed.

Of all that you (pl) have had to say on this issue, this is most to the
point. Quake-lib is a data collection with an interface (the stubs) that
must be ingested by an executable to have any value. In fact quake will
not execute its principle functions without the existance of quake-lib or
it's equivalent (quake-stubs plus the dos database). These two are in the
same relationship as a libc package and an application linked against that
libc.
The goal here is to provide a quake that will run by demanding through
depends that quake-lib also be installed. This is the only function for
the depends mechanism. If quake-lib gets installed without quake, nothing
is broken. 
Another way to look at this is that only executables have depends.
Quake-lib is primarily a data structure with a small amount of executable
code to interface to the data structure. Libc6 is primarily a data
structure (of executable code fragments) with an interface to that data
that is used by an executable program to enhance its functional
capabilities. This puts the linker in the same class as a database
manager, which is also what quake is, btw. Libraries that contain calls to
other libraries can have dependencies, but libraries never depend on the
programs that might link to them.

The bottom line is that it's quite easy to create circular dependency
cituations with the powerful packaging system we now have. Most of the
examples, no matter how well crafted, are fundamentally unnecessary. 

It is incumbant upon the individual maintainers to make use of the
depends, recommends, and suggests, features of the package system in such
a way as to maximize the chances for successful installation and use of
the resultant system. In this task circular dependencies have no valuable
function and should be avoided.

> 
> At some point the concept of dependencies is simply taken to far. And
> quake-lib is such a point. Having quake-lib or libc6 installed without
> any program that uses these packages wastes space but it does not mean
> that programs wont work because their dependencies are not fulfilled.
> 
It's more like the implimentation of dependencies has been taken too far,
the concept is truely functional and, when properly implimented, provides
one of Debians more successful ideas.

Luck,

Dwarf

------------                                          --------------

aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (904) 656-9769
      Flexible Software              11000 McCrackin Road
      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

------------ If you don't see what you want, just ask --------------


--
Please respect the confidentiality of material on the debian-private list.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-private-REQUEST@lists.debian.org . Trouble? e-mail to Bruce@Pixar.com