[Buildroot] [PATCH 1/1] package/python-pycups: new package

Asaf Kahlon asafka7 at gmail.com
Tue Aug 25 11:29:38 UTC 2020


Hello,

On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 2:07 PM Thomas Petazzoni
<thomas.petazzoni at bootlin.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 25 Aug 2020 13:55:36 +0300
> Asaf Kahlon <asafka7 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On the other hand:
> > * Differently from other packages that duplicate the "depends on",
> > here we show nothing in case BR2_PACKAGE_CUPS isn't selected, so we
> > should at least add a comment.
>
> We don't always add a comment when the dependency is obvious. For
> example, all python-<foo> packages don't have a comment that says
> "python-<foo> needs python", because it's obvious if you want a Python
> module that you need to enable Python.
>
> > * In my opinion, even if the user knows that python-pycups needs cups,
> > he wouldn't want to select it on his own and expect it to be selected
> > when choosing python-pycups.
> > But I agree that in some cases it's not so critical.
>
> I think we agree that there is no clear cut line when it comes to using
> "depends on" vs. "select" in this sort of situation.
>
> What I believe is true is:
>
>  - We want to use "select" when the dependency is non-obvious, like
>    package "baz" depending on libxml2, openssl and libzorglub. We
>    cannot expect the user to easily figure out those dependencies.
>
>  - We want to use "depends on" for architecture
>    dependencies/limitations, obviously.
>
>  - We want to use "depends on" when the user has to be aware of the
>    dependency, or when the dependency cannot easily be lifted. For
>    example dependency on toolchain features: glibc/uclibc/musl,
>    threads, etc.
Absolutely agree.

>
> For the other cases, there's no clear cut strategy. But for example
> cups-filters has a "depends on BR2_PACKAGE_CUPS", with no comment about
> this because we assume this is obvious. However, all other dependencies
> of cups-filters are properly enabled using "select" as they are
> non-obvious. Same for the hplip or gutenprint packages.
I generally agree with the idea, thanks.
By the way, there are packages that state the "depends on" part in a
comment, like conman-gtk.
I personally think it's clearer and doesn't harm, but as you said,
there's no clear cut here.

>
> Thomas
> --
> Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Bootlin
> Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
> https://bootlin.com
Asaf.


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