[Fedora-packaging] "Explicit requires" and "requiring base package"

[Ville Skyttä]

On Thursday 03 September 2009, Rex Dieter wrote:
> Ville Skyttä wrote:
> > On Wednesday 02 September 2009, Rex Dieter wrote:
> >> rpm may have implicit dependencies on
> >> base pkgs (from -devel ones) but these often aren't enough to ensure
> >> things "just work".  This falls under the "except when ... necessary"
> >> section of the Explict_Requires guideline, imo.
> >
> > That's fine, I don't have that strong opinions on it.
> >
> > But Explicit Requires also says "When explicit library Requires are
> > necessary, there should be a spec file comment justifying it."  So in
> > other words, libfoo-devel's explicit dependency on libfoo would need such
> > a comment.  I don't think that's the intent.  This could be improved by
> > saying
> >
> > "When explicit library Requires are necessary, there should be a spec
> > file comment justifying it, except in cases that fall under the Requiring
> > Base Package guideline."
>
> Shrug, that should go without saying, imo.  Has there been confusion?

I find the two guidelines' wording to be at least partially in conflict, and 
cross referencing like in above would clarify things.  I'm an old fart here so 
I know how to interpret them, but I'd be surprised if it didn't confuse 
newcomers.