[Slackbuilds-users] dependencies

[Robby Workman]

Deak, Ferenc wrote:

> I know this is FAQ no 14, and I know all the technical and political issues
> issues of the "dependecy problem", but...
> 
> The current rule of this slackbuild project is that we can put the
> "informal" list of dependencies into the README file.
> 
> Supposing that most of us have a full slackware install on our machines,
> is it a very bad idea that a package lists those dependencies formally
> which are solved by the slackbuilds project?
> For example we can put "SBODEPS=pkg1,pkg2" os something similar to the
> .info file.
> 
> The reason is that I would like to write a script to
> 1. to compile an application automatically, building its sbo deps before
> 2. I would like to write a script which checks which packages have to be
> rebuilt, when an other package releases a newer version. I know this 
> later is harder because I have to know that I really need a rebuild or not.
> (when I have a newer .so lib it does not necessary need to rebuild of its
> dependant)
> 
> So the first target is 1.
> 
> If we do not want to put it to the .info the second choice is to put it to
> the README as now,
> but in a standard form (in a separate line by a leading token) to able to
> parse by grep or
> similar tools.


Unless something changes upstream (as in, Pat changes his stance on
the automated dependency resolution issue as a whole), I can say with
almost 100% certainty that this functionality will never be officially
supported and/or endorsed by the SlackBuilds.org project.

The goal of this project was never to provide a "super-tool" that
would find, download, compile, and install an application and its
dependencies.  It requires enough time (from volunteer project admins)
to simply test and approve submissions - trying to maintain a list of
dependencies, incompatibilities, flavors (and the accompanying
dependencies/incompatibilities with them) is just too much work for
very limited benefit.

If some third party wishes to try and maintain such a list, then
that's fine with us.  However, we will not be adding any new parts to
the $APP.info file format for the sole purpose of supporting some
third-party dependency management.

RW

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