The fedora-gnat-project-common package has so far required gcc-gnat. I'm considering removing this dependency. My arguments are as follows:
· The dependency seemed to make sense initially, because directories.gpr would be of no use without Gnatmake. This is no longer true now that GPRbuild is in Fedora. Gnat project files can now be processed by either Gnatmake or GPRbuild.
· GPRbuild can be used for other languages than Ada. It should be possible to compile a program written entirely in C, C++, Fortran or some other language. Gnat would not be needed in such a case, but directories.gpr and the RPM macros in macros.gnat would be useful, so it makes sense to be able to install fedora-gnat-project-common without pulling in gcc-gnat.
· The only argument I have for keeping the dependency is convenience. In the typical case the dependency allows packagers to write "BuildRequires: fedora-gnat-project-common" instead of "BuildRequires: fedora-gnat-project-common gcc-gnat". I think technical accuracy is more important than convenience in this case. A package that requires Gnat to build shall say so in the spec file. By the way there are greater convenience gains to be made by other means, such as spec file templates.
Opinions on this before I make the change in Rawhide?
Björn
-
Björn Persson