tinysshd: Use Recommends: systemd rather than Depends
Package: tinysshd
Version: 20180201-1
[Jan Mojžíš: this is a reply to a thread on debian-devel; some of the
statements below are directed toward that thread, not to you
personally.]
* Vincent Bernat <bernat@debian.org> [181021 11:29]:
> ❦ 21 octobre 2018 13:15 GMT, Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net>:
>
> > >>> tinysshd only ships a systemd unit file; neomutt links against
> > >>> libgpgme11 which again Depends on gnupg. It’s the kind of
> > >>> dependencies that individually make sense,
> >
> > I beg to differ; I suppose (though haven’t actually tried) I
> > can start tinysshd straight from rc.local just as well, or even
> > write my own init.d script, right? Having the dependency in
> > place just makes it harder to me to contribute an init.d script
> > for the package.
>
> tinysshd requires some kind of socket server to run. It could run from
> inetd, so if you were an actual user, I would propose you file a bug
> report against the package to let the maintainer knows the dependency is
> too strong for your use (and maybe propose a patch to integrate with
> inetd).
>
> As you are not, please, do not. Our resources are scarce and we already
> cater for the need of many non-existent users.
Recommends, rather than Depends is correct, based on your description,
even without a patch to enable use with inetd. Anyone who is not using
systemd, either out of dislike of systemd or because they have real
requirements for no or a stripped-down init system, is able to add a
single line to inetd (or one of its successors).
However, adding Depends just because the package ships with a systemd
unit file, and no other init integration, is simply wrong.
Don't let the fact that systemd antagonists keep annoying you prevent
you from doing the right thing. openssh-server has an uncompressed size
of 922k with a long list of Depends. tinysshd has an uncompressed
size of 606k with only two Depends, libc6 and systemd. Changing systemd
to a Recommends would make tinysshd significantly more useful in some
of the use cases where its stated description "minimalistic SSH server"
already makes it the preferred ssh server.
As a general rule, please use Recommends over Depends whenever it will
not truly break the package. This is exactly what Recommends is for.
...Marvin
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