Re: non-blocking dependencies

["Mike M. Volokhov" <mike.volokhov%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:28:45 -0600 Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 04:18:19PM -0600, Larson, Timothy E. wrote:
> > > Is there a way to mark a dependency as non-critical, and won't
> > stop
> > > the build if it doesn't exist?
> > 
> > No. The concept of "optional" dependencies is IMO obscure at best.
> 
> I just gave two concrete examples of their usefulness.
> 
> If I could guarantee dependencies' availability, that would be great,
> but I can't.  I can't get doxygen to build on my primary pkgsrc box,
> which is Solaris 9.  Anything that depends on doxygen is "broken" even
> though I'd probably only lose documentation.  I can live without
> documentation if I have to.  So far, I've been putting the build
> dependency in an ugly if-not-SunOS block.  
> 
> I understand it would probably add a lot more complexity to pkgsrc if
> implemented, though.

IMHO if a package that depends on another one can be used without, it
should be considered to introduce corresponding option to the package.

But in that particular case I'd go with fixing the doxygen.

--
Mishka.

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