[MERGE] Better warnings when pyrex is not available

[John Arbash Meinel]

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James Westby wrote:
> On (16/07/07 13:10), John Arbash Meinel wrote:
>> That sounds like a packaging issue. Pyrex should depend on python-dev if it is
>> required to work.
> 
> On Debian python-pyrex Recommends: python-all-dev.
> 
> This is the correct dependency. pyrex itself doesn't need the header
> files to generate the C, but gcc needs them to compile it.
> 
> The definition of Recommends: is that only unusual requirements would
> mean that it is not installed. However this is subverted by the fact
> that Recommends aren't installed by default with many tools. This has
> meant that Depends: is more often used for this sort of thing, lessening
> the impetus to fix it and make Recommends what they are defined to be.
> 
> Whether this means that pyrex should depend on python-all-dev is an open
> question, and one that we don't actually control. We could file a
> wishlist bug against python-pyrex to change the dependency to get the
> maintainer's opinion.

As an aside, this is (as I understand) why the 'bzr' package Depends on
python-paramiko, rather than Recommends.

People who install bzr expect to have ssh/sftp support. Even though we function
all other ways without it (in fact, we should support bzr+ssh even without
paramiko if you have openssh installed).

I think 'apt-get' defaults to only mentioning Recommends, is that correct?

John
=:->

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