[NTLUG:Discuss] Debian

[Pat Regan]

Kevin Brannen wrote:
> If I'm wrong, hopefully someone more versed in Debian will correct me...
> 
> One of the battles we've recently run across at work is when you want to 
> remove software from a Debian based install.  It doesn't seem to work 
> very well, as it complains about breaking dependencies and such.  That's 
> all well and good, but what if you really want the software removed?  
> (Note, I'm not talking about libs which is problematic, but it has been 
> reported it won't let us remove apps!)
> 
> So I think "dependency hell" can come in many varities.  Pick your 
> favorite poison... ;-)

I may be incorrect, but I was always under the impression that when
people spoke of "dependency hell" it was always in the opposite context
you are using it in.  As in, when you have to install Foo, you have to
install the dependencies Bar and Baz first.  I remember the fun of that
before I had a distro with apt-get.  You'd download one RPM, only to
find out you need 3 more...  The one of them needs another, and so on
down the line until you needed 25 packages that apt would have figured
out for you :p.

Your problem is the opposite.  You want to be able to remove a package
that another package claims to depend on.  Programs don't always just
depend on libraries to be present, but other programs as well.  It is
possible you just don't realize why the dependency is there.

It is also possible that the package maintainer was a little overzealous
defining the dependencies.  If that is the case, you could probably file
a bug report.

I suppose it is also possible that it isn't really a dependency for you,
but it is for most other people (in which case the depended-upon package
should probably be recommended and not depended upon).

Fun, huh? :)

Pat