Remarks on the --optional feature of pactree
Sebastian Jakubiak
jakseb.dev at gmail.com
Thu Jul 30 23:40:42 UTC 2020
Hello,
I would like to share my thoughts on how `pactree --optional` works.
First thing: shouldn't it omit uninstalled optional dependencies when
asked to query the local database (no -s/--sync)? There was a comment by
Johannes Löthberg on an earlier attempt to implement --optional:
> The problem is that while it works fine for -so, when searching for
> local packages it should properly exclude optional dependencies that are
> not installed so they're not printed, rather than being printed as
> unresolvable.
(source: https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/pacman-contrib/2020-May/000274.html)
So for example here:
$ pactree -d1 -o python2-urllib3
python2-urllib3
├─python2
├─python2-pysocks: SOCKS support [unresolvable] (optional)
└─python2-pyopenssl provides python2-pyopenssl: security support (optional)
python2-pysocks should be skipped, shouldn't it?
Second: default value of DEPTH (optional argument of -o/--optional). I
think that infinity (-1) would have been a better choice than 1. In
other words, no depth specified should mean no depth limiting. The
function of the switch could then be described like so:
--optional[=DEPTH] also list optional dependencies, optionally
stopping at DEPTH
This would be kind of analogous to how 'normal' depth works -- unlimited
unless --depth=N is passed. Also, it may sound silly but -o1 feels
slightly easier to type if need be / looks less strange than -o-1.
But I guess that other people's views on this matter might differ from
mine. Plus, it is maybe too late anyway to change the behavior of the
feature since a release containing it has been made. I should have
raised my concerns earlier.
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