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Dave Peticolas dave@krondo.com
Thu, 22 Feb 2001 17:09:18 -0800


Rob Browning writes:
> Dave Peticolas <dave@krondo.com> writes:
> 
> > I think we're talking about different things. GnuCash installs it's
> > own version of finance::quote itself. There is no need for a cpan
> > bundle for this. I (and I assume the other poster) am talking about
> > the low-level libraries that finance quote uses to do net io. They
> > are not installed by gnucash nor are they installed by default on
> > some distributions.
> 
> Hmm.  Maybe.  Even there, I'd still maintain that:
> 
>   - build process should check for/require those sub-packages at build
>     time that it needs for the bits that are going to be built and
>     installed, including "net io" parts if something that depends on
>     them is scheduled for installation. (If anything is missing,
>     perhaps configure should suggest the common -dev packages for
>     RedHat and Debian or point them to a README.dependencies).
> 
>   - .rpm's .debs, etc. should depend on the right runtime net io (or
>     whatever) packages if those are needed for the scripts/binaries
>     included to function properly.  If the packages don't depend on
>     everything they need for all of the components to function
>     properly, then IMO that's a bug.
> 
>   - If there are bits that seem minor enough that you shouldn't
>     require everyone to install them, then at built time, we should
>     have an --enable-foo option, and the gnucash .deb or .rpm should
>     be broken up into multiple packages, some optional (say gnucash,
>     gnucash-quotes, etc.), and the optional packages should depend on
>     the relevant net io, or whatever, other packages they need.

I don't like that solution. It means you have to have a package for
every combination of things you enabled or disabled. The perl net i/o
packages are not needed to build or install gnucash and I don't see
why they should be a build time dependency.

Making them a package dependency just adds to the frustration of
getting gnucash installed properly. We need to make this as simple as
possible so people can try it out. This is different for debian
because it's a lot easier on debian to say 'give me this package' and
automatically get everything you need.

But most people don't run debian and this isn't going to change. On
redhat, I'd rather let people get gnucash installed and have gnucash
tell them 'you need X and Y in order to get online quotes' then force
them to go hunting for every last thing they might need.

dave