[pacman-dev] pacman PKGBUILD needs depends=(python)

[Roman Kyrylych]

2007/4/2, Jason Chu <jason at archlinux.org>:
> > I strongly prefer the second choice. It's much simpler and doesn't
> > differ much from the current way of installing optional packages.
> > Then we'll have this:
> > 1) pacman -S gnome (or any other group or big package with many
> > depends) (optional) pacman asks for each package in group
> > 2) pacman lists all packages that are going to be installed
> > 3) pacman installs those packages, displaying post_install messages if
> > they exist, i.e.:
> >   installing foobar...
> >   :: foobar can make use of following packages if present:
> >   :: python-libnotify - systray popups support
> >   :: libfoo - blah-blah-blah
> > 4) pacman notices uses=(python-libnotify libfoo) in package info and
> > prints: Install python-libnotify [y/N]? y
> > Install libfoo [y/N]?
> > 5) now installation of package is fully finished, pacman writes to
> > local db entry:
> >   %USES%
> >   python-libnotify
> >   !libfoo
> > so it knows that python-libnotify was selected by user and libfoo
> > wasn't.
>
> Be careful with this one.  One of the reasons Judd preferred pacman's
> methods over dpkg is because it doesn't ask you anything after it
> starts downloading.
>
> I wasn't so sold on the idea when I first moved over to Arch, but I now
> prefer non-interactive updates to interactive ones.  If I walk away
> after I've said the last 'y' to start downloading, I know that the
> install will probably be done when I get back.  Using something like
> dpkg, I may have installed only one package and have to wait longer.
>
> Prompting during install: -1

I understand you and I didn't say it will be non-optional behaviour.
I think something like AskForOptionalDependencies = 1 / 0 in
pacman.conf will be OK.
It can even be disabled by default.
Then users won't see any change from current behaviour - there still
will be post_install messages about optional components, and there
will be still no questions from pacman.
That's why I proposed this scheme as it allows to not change
installation/upgrade process much, it's just allows to handle manual
installation of optional packages with pacman.

-- 
Roman Kyrylych (Роман Кирилич)