pulseaudio now depends on libsnapd-glib1

It appears libsnapd-glib1 uses around 300 KB of disk space and has minimal dependencies:

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.46), libjson-glib-1.0-0 (>= 1.2.0), libsoup2.4-1 (>= 2.39.2)

Is there something undesirable here or is it just a matter of preference?

Generally speaking I agree software dependencies have become absurd in some cases. But more objectively I would like to understand if there is some specific issue here.

@Gord, is your issue with libsnapd-glib or with the fact that the lib recommends snapd and that recommends are pulled in by default? The library as Daniel pointed out shouldn't be an issue, it's small and not doing anything if the service is not there.

Note also that it's only a recommends, so while the problem is being worked on you can install the SRU using --no-install-recommends as a workaround (or remove snapd again after update)

AFAICT the addition of snapd as an indirect recommends was an unintended consequence of the update, so I'm tagging this regression-update.

The Xenial/Bionic SRUs have been removed until the Recommends on snapd gets lowered to a Suggest

If you are worried about what the Pulse Audio change is actually doing, here's a description:

 1. there is a new "snap-policy" PA module that is loaded by default.

 2. when a client attempts to use the microphone and has a "snap.*" AppArmor label, it contacts snapd to check whether that app has permission to record audio (as opposed to simply playing sounds).

 3. if the client is not a snap application or it is a snap application with record access, then PA will create record stream.

So there should be no problem with removing snapd again. In fact the policy module should effectively be inert if no snaps are ever run, not even trying to talk to snapd.

The "Recommends: snapd" is definitely too strong for the way Pulse Audio is using libsnapd-glib. Once snapd-glib's dependency is relaxed, we should be able to push this update again.

If you want to speak to the snapd guys and ask them to make libsnapd-glib1 a dependency of snapd, by all means do so.

There are no circumstances where it makes sense to have libsnapd-glib1 as a dependency of pulseaudio.

Pulseaudio and Snap are two seperate entities, and only those with snapd installed actually need snapd library support.

I don't want it. I don't need it, and I certainly don't want the dependencies it drags in. And I don't want to have to make admin changes to accomodate the whims and fanciful notions of others.

And that, I think, is all I wish to say on the matter.

Bug #1856196 is now used to SRU the snapd-glib Recommends->Suggests change, closing the pulseaudio side since the update got reverted for now and the actual bug is not there

@Gord

> There are no circumstances where it makes sense to have libsnapd-glib1 as a dependency of
> pulseaudio.

Really it that it does, it"s a shared library and those are not optional under linux, you can have a read about ELF e.g here if you are intested
https://lwn.net/Articles/631631/

Libraries are small and don't create real overhead, you probably have binaries pulling other libs you don't want. GTK for example does pull in libwayland and it's not optional either

This issue is being addressed via https://pad.lv/1856196

Sebastien Bacher (seb128)wrote on 2019-12-12: #5
The Xenial/Bionic SRUs have been removed until the Recommends on snapd gets lowered to a Suggest

And when will they be re-published?

Still stuck on version 7.5 3 months later.

I know, I've asked for an update just now. Tracking more generally in:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bugs?field.tag=update-reverted

pulseaudio 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.5 with the new dependency was republished in bug #1781428