Inconvenient Package Dependency for mutt

[Soren Hansen]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2007 at 11:39:07PM +0200, Casper Thomsen wrote:
> I've figured out that mutt depends on postfix. 

Not entirely. It Depends on "postfix | mail-transport-agent". This means
that either postfix or mail-transport-agent will fulfill the dependency,
and if the dependency is not fulfilled at the time you ask apt-get (or
your package management tool of choice) to install mutt, it will choose
postfix rather than an abitratray package providing
mail-transport-agent.

> For instance, I don't want postfix, I want MSMTP.

In that case, install msmtp-mta and the dependency is fulfilled.

> Therefore, I suggest that postfix is listed in "Suggested packages"
> like for instance in debian unstable. 

This is the case in Gutsy.

> And MSMTP, sendmail, exim4 etc.  could be added as "Suggested
> packages" as well, maybe?

No, we use virtual packages for that sort of thing. Each of the packages
you suggest (well, s/msmtp/&-mta/g) have a "Provides:
mail-transport-agent" line, so that any other package can simply depend
on that.

-- 
Soren Hansen
Ubuntu Server Team
http://www.ubuntu.com/
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