[NEW IDEA] Automatic removal of dependencies

[Panu Matilainen]

On Thu, 2006-04-27 at 10:29 -0400, Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-04-27 at 06:50 -0700, Panu Matilainen wrote:
> > Recent rpm versions support soft dependencies, eg
> > Requires(hint): foo
> > Provides(hint): bar
> > 
> > ..and have corresponding "aliases" for spec file syntax:
> > Suggests: foo
> > Enhances: bar 
> 
> How is this supposed to work an an automated installation?

You either don't install soft dependencies or install them all, the
latter hardly being a sane option. 

One would probably want two levels of soft requires - the syntax is
implemented in rpm but not sure if they're currently distinguishable
outside the spec syntax:
Requires(missingok) and Requires(hint) where "missingok" is something
you'd want to install by default but removing of the dependency wont
break the package, "hint" being .. well, a hint that this might be
useful with this software but not installed automatically. Enhances is
basically Suggests reversed for situations where Suggests cannot be used
because the main package has no knowledge of the enhancing package.

	- Panu -