block 504514 by 177057 thanks Hi Sam! On Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:49:52 +0100, Sam Steingold wrote:

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3. clisp-dev appears to depend on gcc 4.1 (at least when I try to install clisp-dev on ubuntu, it wants to install gcc 4.1 in addition to the standard gcc 4.2, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/274824).

It seems that the version you tried is an old one, since the one in Debian does not depend on any gcc version (both clisp and clisp-dev packages), at least from version 1:2.43-1.

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this is eminently wrong. even if clisp itself is compiled with gcc 4.1, it can link with modules compiled with gcc 4.2, so there is no reason for clisp-dev to pull gcc 4.1 (the same for bison, xutils, groff &c &c).

This could be a problem for Debian: if we build clisp with a specific gcc version, then we should depend on that version, since different gcc versions can be installed at the same time.

http://packages.debian.org/sid/clisp-dev Package: clisp-dev (1:2.44.1-4.1 and others)

it depends on a whole lot of stuff.

Thank you for having submitted it to the Debian BTS as bug #504514 [1], I really appreciate. I cc:ed the Debian bug: since this is a Debian-specific problem, the discussion should continue there. If you prefer to keep the clisp-devel mailing list informed (which I think it is worth it), please always cc: the Debian bug as well (no subscription required).

the __ONLY__ true dependencies are clisp & a C compiler (not necessarily gcc).

Thanks to `apt-cache showpkg c-compiler` I discovered that the only other C compiler Debian ships is bcc [2], which I do not think it can be used with clisp. I will anyway add the c-compiler virtual package to the clisp-dev Depends:. However, if someone use a C compiler not shipped by Debian, it should create a fake package providing c-compiler to satifsy the dependency. I am sorry this is the only possible solution: as you wrote, a C compiler is a true dependency.

the rest is FAKE.

Even libc6-dev?

clisp-dev does NOT require bison/debhelper/groff/gettext/xutils.

I need to investigate why these were put there, but at least debhelper sounds strange. For the others, read below.

You might think that libffcall1-dev & libsigsegv-dev might be required, but they are NOT, they are already pre-linked (statically) into lisp.a.

According to Debian bug #468090 [3], libffcall1 is not statically pre-linked into lisp.a, but I have never tested for this. If both are statically pre-linked into lisp.a, while I agree that the depedencies are useless, makevars still wants to include them.

readline-dev x11-dev et al are required only for building images on top of the full linking set, not on top of the base linking set, so they are at most "strongly recommended".

The problem is double: 1) ATM Debian does not ship two clisp linking sets, despite a wishlist bug is openend for more than 5 years now [4] (with another one being very similar [5]). I already planned to solve this issue splitting the Debian clisp package into clisp-base and clisp-full, but I have not had time yet :-( 2) makevars wants to include all of the libraries listed in clisp-dev Depends:, that is why these libraries are, in the Debian world, required. The solution can be double as well: a) as soon as the clisp package is splitted into clisp-base and clisp-full, then clisp-dev would depend on clisp-base, which means not accessory libraries in makevars b) moving all accessory libraries into Recommends:, with a big note in the README.Debian which explains the reason for this, pointing at this bug as well. The former solution is my preferred, since it is cleaner and more logical [6], but the latter is simpler to implement. Thx, bye, Gismo / Luca Footnotes: [1] http://bugs.debian.org/504514 [2] http://packages.debian.org/sid/bcc [3] http://bugs.debian.org/468090 [4] http://bugs.debian.org/177057 [5] http://bugs.debian.org/462085 [6] that is this bug is blocked by bug #177057 [3]