Bug#627083: "recommends: jackd" is a bit weak

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Package: jackd2
Version: 1.9.7~dfsg-1
Severity: normal

currently libjack "recommends" to install jackd, which usually evaluates to not
automatically install jackd if a package depends on libjack.

i read bug-report #442814 which implemented the change from "suggests" to
"recommends" but i am not totally convinced that i can follow the argument
(being myself rather audio-centric, so i have a natural bias ;-))

in short:
- a lot of audio-packages have jack support and thus depend on libjack
- installing libjack does not mean that jackd _must_ be installed (great, i like
  weak dependencies)
- however, installing libjack will not trigger an installation of jackd (due to
  the _very_ weak dependency), thus most installations will end up without jackd
  installed (that was the purpose of #442814)
- if the user wants to use the jack-enabled application (which they installed
  using apt), it will not work in most of these installations as jack cannot be
started, giving a cryptic error (e.g. "/usr/bin/jackd not found"), leaving the
use alone

i therefore suggest to raise dependency-level of libjack towards jackd to
"suggests" again, so people will actually be able to use their installed
jack-enabled applications.

alternative suggestions:
 - the packagers could manually add "Suggests: jackd" to each package; 
   this is ugly as it has to be done for each and every jack-enabled package and
   requires a lot more packaging ressources.
 - add a new mechanism to apt, maintaining a "recommendation score" for each
   package (A) which is raised whenever the user installs a package (B) that
   'recommends: A'; once several packages recommending A are installed, A could
   enter auto-install mode (a la 'suggests') thus people focusing around a group of
   applications (e.g. audio people) will get what they expect;
   this is ugly, as people installing loads of similar software will probably
   install the recommended application as well, whereas the occasional user will be
   left without e.g. jackd and a "non-working" system;


mdfasr
IOhannes


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'oldstable'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.36-trunk-686 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_AT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_AT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages jackd2 depends on:
ii  coreutils                   8.5-1        GNU core utilities
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]       1.5.38       Debian configuration management sy
ii  libasound2                  1.0.23-3     shared library for ALSA applicatio
ii  libc6                       2.11.2-11    Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcelt0-0                  0.7.1-1      The CELT codec runtime library
ii  libdbus-1-3                 1.4.8-3      simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libexpat1                   2.0.1-7      XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libgcc1                     1:4.6.0-2    GCC support library
ii  libjack-jackd2-0            1.9.7~dfsg-1 JACK Audio Connection Kit (librari
ii  libncurses5                 5.9-1        shared libraries for terminal hand
ii  libreadline6                6.1-3        GNU readline and history libraries
ii  libsamplerate0              0.1.7-3      Audio sample rate conversion libra
ii  libsndfile1                 1.0.24-1     Library for reading/writing audio 
ii  libstdc++6                  4.6.0-2      The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  python                      2.6.6-14     interactive high-level object-orie
ii  python-dbus                 0.83.1-1+b1  simple interprocess messaging syst

Versions of packages jackd2 recommends:
ii  jackd2-firewire             1.9.7~dfsg-1 JACK Audio Connection Kit (FFADO a
ii  libpam-modules              1.1.2-2      Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  qjackctl                    0.3.7-4      User interface for controlling the

Versions of packages jackd2 suggests:
pn  jack-tools                    <none>     (no description available)
pn  meterbridge                   <none>     (no description available)

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf changed [not included]

-- debconf information excluded