devscripts pulls in Postfix by default: Should Suggest instead of Recommend bsd-mailx | mailutils

Bug #485264 reported by Alain Kalker
14
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
devscripts (Debian)
Fix Released
Unknown
devscripts (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: devscripts

Because Recommended packages get installed by default, installing devscripts on a fresh install pulls in a complete MTA as an indirect result of Recommending these mailers.

Setting up an MTA is not easy to automate, so users will either be pestered with Debconf questions and may need to edit configuration files and do testing to get the MTA running succesfully and securely, or they will have to manually uninstall it after installing devscripts, or they will need to install it with apt-get --no-install-recommends and cherry-pick all the other packages they need. This is IMHO overkill for most users and defeats the purpose of Recommending certain packages.

All of the utilities which might need access to a mailer are described as such in the package description, and all will fail gracefully (as far as I can tell) with a descriptive message if one is not available.

Compare with the reportbug package, whose sole purpose is reporting bugs by email, which merely Suggests a mailer.

Kind regards,

Alain

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Revision history for this message
Steve McGrath (smcgrath23) wrote :

Indeed. I was kind of surprised when I installed the devscripts and ended up with full-blown Postfix installed on my laptop.

Changed in devscripts (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Paul Sladen (sladen)
summary: - Should Suggest instead of Recommend bsd-mailx | mailutils
+ devscripts pulls in Postfix by default: Should Suggest instead of
+ Recommend bsd-mailx | mailutils
Changed in devscripts (Debian):
status: Unknown → New
Changed in devscripts (Debian):
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :
Download full text (10.9 KiB)

This bug was fixed in the package devscripts - 2.10.73ubuntu1

---------------
devscripts (2.10.73ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable (LP: #717389); remaining changes:
    - Demote Recommends to Suggests:
      + libcrypt-ssleay-perl: only needed for a corner case (uscan on SSL
        download sites), wasn't installed by default in previous releases
        either, and seems quite dead upstream; universe only.
      + debian-{keyring,maintainers}: not useful enough in Ubuntu; universe
        only.
      + equivs: too much of a hack to install by default; universe only.
      + libyaml-syck-perl: transition-check is fairly Debian-specific.
    - scripts/debchange.{pl,1}:
      + Adjust --security template for Ubuntu.
      + Add -U/--upstream flag that forces original "just increment
        the end" behaviour; Ubuntu is upstream for some pieces of software.
      + Add --distributor= and DEBCHANGE_DISTRIBUTOR to override lsb_release
        output.
      + Default to "oneiric" as distribution.
      + Add "ubuntu1" to version string for new versions, with tweaks for
        special cases.
      + Add -R/--rebuild flag for Ubuntu's no-change rebuilds.
      + Don't use the last distribution in debian/changelog when doing
        "dch -r" on Ubuntu. "Just because it was last uploaded to jaunty
        doesn't mean that's the right thing to do now." Thanks to Colin
        Watson. (LP: #429288)
    - scripts/debsign.{sh,1}: Implement DEBSIGN_ALWAYS_RESIGN variable to skip
      the "Would you like to use the current signature?" question. (Debian
      #447955)
    - scripts/debuild.pl: Enforce Ubuntu merge policy.
    - scripts/dscverify.pl: Add Ubuntu keyrings.
    - scripts/rmadison.pl: Change default URL parameter to ubuntu.
    - Add test/debchange.pl, test/Makefile: debchange test suite.
    - Rename XS-Vcs-* to XS-Debian-Vcs-*.
  * debchange: Use dpkg-vendor instead of lsb_release.
  * debchange: Add DEBCHANGE_DISTRIBUTOR to array of config variables. Thanks
    to Adam Dorsey for the patch. (LP: #783693)

devscripts (2.10.73) unstable; urgency=low

  [ James Vega ]
  * uscan:
    + Use the correct path when repacking zip files. (Closes: #622889)
    + Make file show all matched file types instead of just the first.
      (Closes: #574155)
  * uupdate: Handle hidden files when the upstream archive doesn't contain its
    files under one top-level directory. (Closes: #601945)
  * bts:
    + Indicate version argument is optional for done command. (Closes:
      #623567)
    + Silence warnings with (un)subscribe command when no email is specified.
      (Closes: #626086)
    + Indicate email argument is optional for (un)subscribe commands.
  * debsnap:
    + Add support for downloading binary packages. Thanks to Timo Juhani
      Lindfors for the patch. (Closes: #587523)
    + Only download a file if it doesn't exist or its hashsum doesn't match
      the one specified by snapshot.d.o.
  * debchange:
    + Add -M option to use debian/control's Maintainer information. Thanks to
      Modestas Vainius for the patch. (Closes: #560900)
    + Update recognized Ubuntu releases (- jaunty/karmic, + oneiric).
  * dge...

Changed in devscripts (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Changed in devscripts (Debian):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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