Re: To DEPEND on indirect dependencies or not to DEPEND

On 14 Jun 2026, at 06:07, Mark Millard <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 6/13/26 20:21, Bugs Beastie wrote:
>> [….]
>> If an app depends on libfoo that depends on libbar:
>> app -> libfoo -> libbar
>> Should the port of app add LIB_DEPENDS only on libfoo or on both libfoo and libbar?
>> [...]
> In other words(?): Where does the responsibility for handling the
> transitive closure of the dependencies reside?

Hi, from a principle point of view the port should add only libfoo unless it also uses directly libbar.

This because tomorrow morning the maintainer of libfoo might decide to stop using libbar and use libbaz instead, so your app does not need libbar anymore and dependency becomes implicitly:
app -> libfoo -> libbaz.

Just my two cents,

A.