Debian bug report logs - #1753
trn recommends, instead of depends

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Date: Sun, 29 Oct 95 01:38 GMT
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: Kenny Wickstrom <kenny@kennet.com>
Cc: debian-bugs@Pixar.com, Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>
Subject: Re: Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends
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Kenny Wickstrom writes ("Re: Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends"):
> On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > Bdale Garbee writes ("Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends"):
> > Recommends is correct.  You can read news perfectly happily without
> > either a mail transport or a news article injector.
> > 
> > I'll reassign the bug report to tin.
> 
> Are you sure this is right?  Normal functionality of tin allows the user 
> to mail a response or the article to an address.  Would it be correct for 
> the system to allow someone to install a package where some of the 
> functionality is missing?  This would surely generate another defect 
> report.

No, because it's actually pretty hard to install a package using
dselect and fail to select its Recommended packages too.

You can do it with dpkg, but such bug reports are easy to close (and I
think that most people using dpkg manually will probably have enough
of a clue to think a bit more about what they're doing).

> I suppose recommends is a strong enough relationship that the system 
> maintainer would realize that some functionality may be missing if a 
> recommended package is missing.

That is part of the definition of the Recommended relationship.

> I will make the change to the tin package.

Thanks,
Ian.

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From wwa.com!kennet.com!kenny Fri Oct 27 20:06:31 1995
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Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 21:53:56 -0500 (CDT)
From: Kenny Wickstrom <kenny@kennet.com>
To: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Cc: Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>
Subject: Re: Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends
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On Tue, 24 Oct 1995, Ian Jackson wrote:

> Bdale Garbee writes ("Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends"):
> > Package: trn
> > Version: 3.6-2
> >
> > It's not clear to me why trn uses 'recommends' for a mail transport
> > and a news article injector, while tin uses 'depends'.  I think that depends
> > makes more sense, so I'm filing this against trn.
> 
> Recommends is correct.  You can read news perfectly happily without
> either a mail transport or a news article injector.
> 
> I'll reassign the bug report to tin.

Are you sure this is right?  Normal functionality of tin allows the user 
to mail a response or the article to an address.  Would it be correct for 
the system to allow someone to install a package where some of the 
functionality is missing?  This would surely generate another defect 
report.

I suppose recommends is a strong enough relationship that the system 
maintainer would realize that some functionality may be missing if a 
recommended package is missing.

I will make the change to the tin package.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenny Wickstrom           | gnu - a new generation in s/w devel/support
kenny@kennet.com          | Linux - a much improved Un*x clone
(708)740-4008             | Debian - a Linux distribution setting the
#include <std-disclaimer> |    standard for future distributions

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Date: Tue, 24 Oct 95 20:48 GMT
From: Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>
To: Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>, debian-bugs@Pixar.com
Subject: Re: Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends

Bdale Garbee writes ("Bug#1753: trn recommends, instead of depends"):
> Package: trn
> Version: 3.6-2
> 
> It's not clear to me why trn uses 'recommends' for a mail transport
> and a news article injector, while tin uses 'depends'.  I think that depends
> makes more sense, so I'm filing this against trn.

Recommends is correct.  You can read news perfectly happily without
either a mail transport or a news article injector.

I'll reassign the bug report to tin.

Ian.

Message received at debian-bugs:

From gag.com!bdale Tue Oct 24 08:35:19 1995
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Date: Tue, 24 Oct 1995 09:34:40 -0600
From: Bdale Garbee <bdale@gag.com>
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To: debian-bugs@pixar.com
Subject: trn recommends, instead of depends

Package: trn
Version: 3.6-2

It's not clear to me why trn uses 'recommends' for a mail transport
and a news article injector, while tin uses 'depends'.  I think that depends
makes more sense, so I'm filing this against trn.

Bdale