Bug#749451: libgtk-3-dev introduces dependency on C++ library

[Simon McVittie]

On 27/05/14 01:43, Jamin Hoggard wrote:
> Details:
>  libgtk-3-dev depends on libglib2.0-dev, which depends on libpcre3-dev.
> However, libpcre3-dev depends on libpcrecpp0, which introduces
> dependencies on C++ libraries (libstdc++).

These libraries must be installed during compilation due to the way
libpcre is packaged, but do not introduce extra dependencies for
applications compiled against Gtk3 (for instance, gnome-terminal uses
Gtk3 but does not depend on libpcrecpp0, even indirectly). So, the
impact is "developers' systems have slightly more libraries installed".

The build-essential metapackage depends on a C++ compiler (and hence
libstdc++) anyway, so this has basically no effect on the
build-dependencies of any Debian package (libpcrecpp0 itself is small).

Is there a concrete situation in which it is a practical problem that a
developer's system must have libpcrecpp0 and libstdc++?

If there is a real practical problem, splitting libpcre3-dev into C and
C++ parts is likely to be a better solution. However, libstdc++ is used
by build-essential and apt, so this seems likely to be mostly a
theoretical concern: in practice, Debian systems in general, and
developer systems in particular, are going to have it.

> According to the documentation at
>  https://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/glib-building.html
>  GLib can, and is indeed recommended to, be compiled using GLib's
> internal version of PCRE (i.e. using the configure script option
> --with-pcre=internal).

Debian policy is to avoid embedded code copies unless there is a
compelling technical reason to use them, and ensure that the system
libpcre remains compatible with GLib's usage. This ensures that if there
is a security vulnerability in PCRE (which has happened in the past),
patching PCRE is sufficient to fix that vulnerability.

    S