Arch Linux

Do we include things that are in the base set in depends? Otherwise you get the rediculousness of including gcc, glibc, etc.

Otherwise, we have to at least add bash, findutils, file, grep, gzip, sed, tar, and a download program (wget) from a quick scan of the list. This seems excessive to me.

While on the subject of dependencies, python is more of an optional dependency? If one wants to use the rankmirrors script, they need it, but not for anything else that I can think of.

findutils is in 'base'. Typically it is assumed that all of base is installed. Adding these packages could easilly get out of hand.

Currently, makepkg would depend on:
bash
coreutils
bzip2 (??)
file
findutils
grep
gzip
sed
tar
wget
zlib

Not to mention common utilities used to build most packages:
gcc
m4
make
pkgconfig
patch


Should we also add all these as dependencies? I think not.

I also forgot that the extract functionality can also use the following: cpio and compress

Hm.. May be base metapackage should be made? To ensure that base properly installed with pacman -S base?

Even if a base metapackage were made, that's not a pacman bug. However, it is the opinion of most arch devs that a 'base' package is a bad idea. The reason being that 'base' is installed by default, You are free to remove packages from base if you want, but you *MUST* know what you're doing.
Still we're getting into the realm of global arch policies and away from pacman. Do you still consider this a pacman bug?

I don't consider this as pacman bug since 3rd comment :)
I think this bug can be closed. Thanks for explanation.

sergej and phrakture- why don't we close this bug, as it is filed as a pacman bug, after another feature request is filed to look into the idea of a base package. Perhaps include some of the comments stated above (especially the 'base' package is a bad idea one).

I'll add my two cents to put in another bug report- I uninstall things like mdadm from my systems after a new install because I know I will never need it. This is in the base package, and yet caters to a small subset of users. I think the concept of a 'base' package should be split from what is included even on the 'base' install CD. Only a few basic packages should be absolutely essential.

I also tend to kill a lot from "base" afterwards.
Additionally I remove makedepends after successful builds in order to catch hidden depends in the future. I'll agree that this bug could be closed regarding pacman (but a makepkg feature offering to remove makedepends afterwards might be nice though).

I'm currently reading a bit into Debian policy, they have a "build-essential" package, pkgs marked as "essential" or "required", a 'priority' field, and a whole shitload of other stuff we'll hopefully never implement.