No regular adwaita action icons in default Gnome

[email protected] Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:08:49 +0000
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.gtk-gnome
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hello,

I am asking as an upstream maintainer of a Qt (Python) desktop 
appliciation [1][2] trying to understand a situation.

Installing Debian 13 with GNOME and not other desktop environment 
selected from the installer results in situation with icons I try to 
understand.
My users and me are missing some of the "action" icons defined by the 
free desktop icon naming specs [3].

The package "adwaita-icon-theme" [4] has no "document-save" like this

     /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/*/actions/document-save.svg (does not 
exist)

But this exist

     /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/symbolic/actions/document-save-symbolic.svg

That package is installed when "task-gnome-desktop" is choosen.
I would like to know what the reasons is that regular (non-symbolic) 
standard icons are missing when installing a desktop environment.

I am sure there is a good reason because it is Debian.

The background of my question is that my application does not find the 
default icons because they are not in the system.
But in my opinion (and there might be also a Debian policy about it) 
should a regular end-user desktop application not depend on a specific 
icon-package.
I don't want to make it depend on oxygen, tango or something else.

Best regards,
Christian

[1] -- <https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/backintime>
[2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime>
[3] -- <https://specifications.freedesktop.org/icon-naming/latest/>
[4] -- <https://packages.debian.org/sid/all/adwaita-icon-theme/filelist>