[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#827562: task-xfce-desktop: Depends on light-locker Should Be Recommends

[Leo L. Schwab]

On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 11:24:13AM +0200, Yves-Alexis Perez wrote:
> So yes, we *want* light-locker in the default Debian Xfce desktop. But that
> doesn't mean you can't use something else with the Xfce desktop environment
> under debian: just remove light-locker. Yes, it'll remove task-xfce-desktop
> (except that I've never seen it installed after a standard installer run, but
> I don't do that very often either), but task-xfce-desktop is just a
> metapackage anyway.
> 
> I hope the position is clearer now?
> 
	Your position is entirely clear and reasonable.  It's the
implementation I'm having trouble with.

	When you install task-xfce-desktop, from a dependency standpoint, it
becomes the "parent" of all things XFCE -- the task is marked as manually
installed; its dependencies are marked as automatically installed, and will
be deleted by the package manager when everything that depends on them goes
away.  If you then delete task-xfce-desktop, all its dependencies lose their
parent, and aptitude happily cleans up all of XFCE.

	I admit I'm walking off the edge of my knowledge of Debian policy
and implementation arcana here.  It may be that Debian 'task' packages are
treated specially, and packages installed via a 'task' aren't marked as
automatically installed.  If that's indeed the case, then my bug report is
moot.  If not, then I believe more thought is called for here.

					Schwab