[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#612715: Bug#612715: wpasupplicant: Remove dep to libpcsclite1

[Luca Capello]

Hi there!

On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:33:08 +0100, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann wrote:
> On Friday 11 February 2011, Sven Joachim wrote:
>> On 2011-02-10 08:15 +0100, Salvo Tomaselli wrote:
>> > I can't understand why wpasupplicant should depend on a library
>> > to use smart card readers.
[...]
>> For those who don't understand this sentence, libpcsclite1 in sid now
>> depends on pcscd (which in turn depends on the not-so-welcome hal).
>> This is the real problem IMO; I don't care about small library packages
>> as long as they don't drag in random daemons.
>
> After a short coordination with Kel, we've decided to disable PCSC in
> the next wpasupplicant upload, which allows to drop the dependency on
> libpcsclite1 and therefore indirectly on hal.

Which is the real culprit: why do libpcsclite1 depend on pcscd?  This is
#612971 (cc:ed), and I do not understand why it should be fixed on
wpasupplicant side.

libpcsclite1 depending on pcscd now brings hal, but then in future it
will bring whatever pcscd depends on, which is a bit strange for a
library.  While I am not a library expert and I understand libpcsclite1
is useless without pcscd, still I do not see why a library depends on a
daemon to be *installed*.  And what if someone writes another daemon
different than pcscd, but still for PC/SC communication through
libpcsclite1?

> Of course the better solution would be to dlopen() it, but smartcard
> support through the PC/SC-Daemon appears to be rare enough to disable
> it, until anyone really cares enough about PC/SC to implement it that
> way.

Please note that this is another bug, independent of the dependency (no
pun intended), to which Ludovic already commented on, and he actually
provided the patch, both in the Debian BTS and upstream:

  <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=612715#15>
  <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=531592#10>
  <http://w1.fi/bugz/show_bug.cgi?id=315>

Unfortunately, the upstream bug is open for now more than a year and a
half, without any reply from upstream authors.
  
> I've committed the according changes to the packaging Vcs (pkg-wpa, 
> svnr1570) and it will take effect with the next wpasupplicant upload 
> (no hard ETA, yet).

Please, if you think something must be done on wpasupplicant side,
please upload a fixed package ASAP, given that this has a side effect of
having HAL where it is not needed (anymore).  FYI, I added wpasupplicant
to the list of packages that need to be fixed for HAL removal:

  <https://wiki.debian.org/HALRemoval?action=diff&rev1=100&rev2=101>

Thx, bye,
Gismo / Luca
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