[Mageia-dev] Actual java stack is absurd !

Thu May 3 15:38:00 CEST 2012

03.05.2012 11:28, Claire REVILLET kirjoitti:
+> Hi,
+> 
+> Looking at this bug : https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5732
+> i tried to install Scilab under cauldron 64 : it needs 367 packages !!!
+> 
+> Scilab does not need apache nor sql. And more than that : it does not
+> need sending or receiving emails, so why should javamail be installed ?
+> 
+> I know that packaging java is special, but working like that brings just
+> more conflict issues. And that also means that on a small computer,  we
+> can't have any java software.
+> 
+> I know it's too late for mga2, but can't we thing about that before mg3
+> release, please ?
+
+I think most of the java dependency issues can be put to two specific
+categories:
+
+(a) Libraries that have a lot of optional dependencies. IMHO at least
+the biggest ones of those deps should be stripped from the "library"
+packages and moved to the application packages instead. It would make
+handling a bit different than what we do for normal
+libraries+applications, but it seems like for java it is necessary if we
+want to get rid of insane deps (note that when fixing/workarounding
+these it is important to document the modifications in comments).
+
+(b) Package contains both a "library" and tools, and the tools have lots
+of dependencies, and the library is used by other packages. In this case
+the library (.jar file) should be splitted out. Debian has done quite
+well in this regard ("libfoo-java" policy).
+
+I think there are also some (c) completely wrong deps.
+
+I worked on this a bit a few years back, but I think most of my changes
+have since been overwritten with fedora versions despite comments noting
+the change... I guess anyone doing these fixes needs to push them to
+fedora as well to make them stick.
+
+I don't think I have much personal interest in working on this in the
+near future myself, though -- I don't normally use java apps and I've
+many other things to work on.
+
+-- 
+Anssi Hannula
+