[arch-general] depends vs. optdepends

[Troy Engel]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Daniel Micay <danielmicay at gmail.com> wrote:
> Arch currently uses optional dependencies even when it means that
> executables provided by the package aren't going to work with the
> minimal set of dependencies. The packages could be split up more to
> avoid this without pulling in more stuff, but it's not what packagers
> usually choose to it. It's a design choice left up to the packager, not
> a bug.

Thank you - tribal knowledge that wasn't written down as an acceptable
standard to the Arch packaging. I have added your first sentence to a
note (and credited you in the comment) so that it's not tribal
anymore:

  https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD#optdepends

The reason this is complicated is anyone who comes into Arch from
(most) other distros where this is considered a bug needs to
understand Arch doesn't work by the same rules as all the others for
binary shared library resolution. I disagree with the SOP, but can
leave my opinion at the door.

-te