Bug#1084924: The system-log-daemon virtual package

Sean Whitton <[email protected]> Fri, 15 Nov 2024 17:59:32 +0800

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.ctte
Message-ID	<87o72g95rv.fsf__43669.1934637324$1731665008$gmane$org@melete.silentflame.com>

Hello,

On Thu 14 Nov 2024 at 08:07am +01, Ansgar 🙀 wrote:

> That would be an argument to *NOT* have random packages "Recommend:
> system-log-daemon" so it is easier to not have it installed at all.
>
> We spent quite some time to have packages *NOT* "Recommend: mta" so it
> doesn't get installed by default. (Though I think there are still left-
> overs outside the default install...)
>
> Having "system facilities" that the admins decide to install or not
> install makes keeping optional stuff optional easier than random
> "Recommends:" pulling in packages that might or might not be useful for
> individual installations. As far as I understand there are often
> concerns that "Recommends:" is sometimes far too inclusive in Debian.

But for maximum flexibility, we try to express as much as possible in
our dependency system.  If someone doesn't want a logging facility, they
should probably blacklist it for instllation in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d.
It's still reasonable for a package maintainer to assert that in all but
unusual installations, this particular daemon would want to log.

> On the other hand some people argue that a "proper" UNIX-like system
> always needs a MTA (and a running syslog and a compiler and so on)
> because that is what some systems looked like in the past...

I don't believe this is relevant.

-- 
Sean Whitton

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