Re: [Helidelinux-devel] Dependency management for software packaging

[Hui Z. <zh...@wa...>]

On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 09:50:54AM +0000, Rolf Veen wrote:
> But:
> 
> - how do we handle optional deps
Optional is optional, either omit all or include all, or prompt during
installing and let user select. One problem remain in that all options
are for a reason. How do we extract this reason so the user can make
wise selection?

> - what are the basic units: packages, files.
For building dependency, certainly package unit is desirable, other
wise one has to decide which file belongs to which package. However,
some dependency is a multiple choice, such as either glibc or uClibc.
For these situations, file dependency may be more precise. 

For running dependency, one has to break common package apart, such as
devel package, doc package, etc. I am thinking for some small
dedicated system, can we enumerate each executable with ldd to find out
the runtime library dependency? Bennett proposed using strings, which
may be a better solution. This definitely need thorough testing to
find out.

-Hui