Marian Jancar wrote:
What I really need, is probably: Enhances: ( libgda + mysql )
Such assumption as what the user probably has or has not usage for doesn't belong to low level stuff like a package. A package cannot (and should not) know everything about all the system and the about the user preferences. In this case, what if the user intends to use a mysql on a remote machine?
If mysql client libraries are not installed, (s)he probably don't want.
One of suggestions says, do not offer or warn about enhancement packages with a lot of unresolved dependencies. But it is not a solution.
For example I have also:
Package: gstreamer-plugins-extra Enhances: gstreamer
The package also has many unresolved dependencies, but I really want to suggest here: "Yes, install all these dependencies to have a cool gstreamer package."
Whether a package is cool for a user depends on his preferences, something a high level setup tool can know about but a package cannot..
But packager should know, that it is perfectly possible to use libgda without libgda-mysql (only not for MySQL databases), but it is hard to use gstreamer without gstreamer-plugins-extra (because it is not able to play many common audio format). But it is still not hard-dependency, because your music player is still able to play WAV without it.
And additional ideas:
Is it possible to use Enhances for virtuals or Suggests for symbols instead of package name? I want to say: "Yes gimp-help enhances both gimp and gimp-unstable."
Both the hard/soft dependencies are after Provides (if I'm correct), there should be no problem.
Soft dependencies are evaluated by higher level tools. If these tools will be aware on symbols, not only package names, then yes.
Maybe it should be evident, why package Suggests/Enhances other package, to provide enough information to user. For example:
Package: mc Suggests: (xv eog gv pdftotext)("To provide default viewers. You can define different viewers and ignore these suggestions.")
Package: gnome-session Suggests: gnome2-user-docs("To provide enhanced user documentation.")
The purpose should be obvious from the suggested package description.
In other cases it is not obvious, that: "Without package yyy, you will be able to use all tools from xxx except zzz, which is not commonly used." -- Best Regards / S pozdravem, Stanislav Brabec software developer --------------------------------------------------------------------- SuSE CR, s. r. o. e-mail: sbrabec@suse.cz Drahobejlova 27 tel: +420 296 542 382 190 00 Praha 9 fax: +420 296 542 374 Czech Republic http://www.suse.cz/