On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 7:52 AM, Michael Schwendt <mschwendt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
After many years, there still is the occasional packager, who adds
an explicit "Requires: %{name} = %{version}-%{release}" to a noarch -doc
subpackage which contains files one can display with any suitable program
(such as PDF, HTML or TXT files).
I don't know why they do it. The "Requiring Base Package" guidelines
leave enough freedom to not do it and even mention -libs subpackages as one
example where the base dep is not "needed":
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Requiring_Base_Package
What do other packagers think about this?
Can we please get rid of such bloat in plain Documentation packages?
These dependencies pull in lots of stuff even if one only wants to peruse
the documentation (e.g. when taking a brief look at an API or what an
application can do).
Agree +1
As I've seen how people fiddle with that, doc packaging has been a
mess. Someone name -doc package to -docs, and someone build them as
arch-dependant packages.
-doc subpkg shouldn't require main pkg, just as Mat said above, it's
really irritating to view docs while pulling in lots of dependencies.
Some doc package are really large, and base pkg it pulls is even
larger.