[arch-general] Handling optional dependencies with pacman?

[Dieter Plaetinck]

On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:34:15 -0400
David Rosenstrauch <darose at darose.net> wrote:

> David C. Rankin wrote:
> > Listmates,
> > 
> > 	Is there a better way to handle optional dependencies than
> > just manually creating a list and checking it against the current
> > installed packages to see if you need to install them before
> > issuing the sync command and having some of the packages
> > reinstalled?
> 
> I can think of one:  just don't install those packages at all until
> you need them!
> 
> DR

i use 2 custom bash functions.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=59385

There are some rough plans to someday improve optdeps support in pacman
itself though :)  See
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:Allan/Pacman_OptDepends

Dieter