Arch Linux User Repository

@kseistrup, thank you for blazing-fast replies.

@vitaliikuzhdin Right, I see your point. Thanks for the explanation and your patience. Hang on while I push an update…

@kseistrup, I'm not sure we're on the same page.

Currently, every package maintainer who deals with python-sphinx-markdown-tables has to add two dependencies instead of one. While not critical, it's odd that this wasn't included in the first place. Users building a package that makedepends on python-sphinx-markdown-tables with an AUR helper (like yay) will have both dependencies installed and removed automatically -- no issue there.

However, AUR helpers are discouraged. If someone is building such a package manually or explicitly wants python-sphinx-markdown-tables for development, they'll also have python-sphinx installed explicitly instead of implicitly. This becomes hard-to-detect bloat when it comes to removing packages.

Also, consider that in the official repositories, every Sphinx extension depends on python-sphinx: https://archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q=python-sphinx

@vitaliikuzhdin In that case — if I have understood you right — you should declare python-sphinx and python-sphinx-markdown-tables as makedepends dependencies of the package you are building.

Originally, I created this package because it is used to build the docs for https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/python-runtype and I have included the two packages (Sphinx and this one) as make dependencies. This allows people to remove the makedepends when they have built and installed the package.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood your scope.

Meanwhile, I will remove the debugedit dependency. It's included in the base-devel meta-package, and people should install that package if they want to build Arch Linux packages.

@kseistrup, there are no specific issues -- after all, I only depend on this package when building docs, and I can always specify python-sphinx as an additional make dependency manually. However, in the package I'm currently working on, python-sphinx is not specified as a dependency for building docs because it's already assumed to be installed.

Indeed, python-sphinx is not needed for building or installing the package, so it's not a make dependency but a runtime one. If there's no possible way to use your package without also having python-sphinx, I think it's better not to make the user manually install two packages instead of one.

The same principle applies during package removal. Currently, users have to specify both python-sphinx and python-sphinx-rtd-theme to remove them, since the former was installed explicitly rather than as a dependency, meaning it won't be recursively auto-removed.

@vitaliikuzhdin I agree that it doesn't make sense to install this package without python-spinx, but the latter is not a dependency for building the package or installing it.

How does it give you troubles that python-spinx is not a dependency?

Please add python-sphinx as a dependency.

@vedranmiletic You're welcome.

I must admit I don't quite understand why the debugedit package should be necessary, as there is nothing in the upstream source that calls for it. But better safe than sorry, so thanks again for reporting it.

@kseistrup That was quick, thanks!

@vedranmiletic Thanks for letting me know.