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Ühel kenal päeval, K, 06.01.2016 kell 16:23, kirjutas tot-to: |
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> I'm a user of a KISS wm, which does not provide Windows™-like menus, |
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> desktop icons, etc. GUI software is called just by typing the binary |
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> name in PATH, just like any other software. For me the desktop-files |
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> are |
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> some kind of useless junk. |
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> |
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> Recently a lot of software were made harddep on |
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> dev-util/desktop-file-utils, i.e. from now on there are not only junk |
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> text files, but also a junk software required without any reason. |
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> I've |
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> added it to /etc/portage/profile/package.provided and everything |
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> compiles and works just fine. It means that in reality there is no |
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> real |
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> need in this software. |
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> |
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> Please make these dependencies optional. |
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> |
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|
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This is not going to happen, because this dependency is not optional. |
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The fact that it seems to build for you without an apparent immediate |
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breakage on emerge, doesn't mean things aren't broken for you. |
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At least in the GNOME team we are not in the business of having silent |
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breakages to avoid build time dependencies of a 19kB simple utility |
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(192kB with a couple other tools and documentation). |
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|
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desktop-file-utils is used to update the MIME types handling |
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applications cache database after .desktop files are installed or |
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removed. |
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xdg desktop files are not only for showing GUI applications in |
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application menus, but also handling of automatic startup on login of |
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things, MIME type associations (which this is used in particular at |
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buildtime to update the association database as stated above) |
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|
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If you choose to INSTALL_MASK /usr/share/applications and/or other |
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.desktop files, you aren't just avoiding tiny text files from being |
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installed that you believe are only needed for application menu |
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entries, you are also breaking MIME type associations and various other |
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features these FreeDesktop.org standard files provide to the overall |
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system. |
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|
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If such a USE=desktop-file is added and then these desktop-file-utils |
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utility calls are not made via xdg.eclass, then your system will have |
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no idea of MIME type capabilities. Your browser (opened via your dear |
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terminal from command line) will not be able to know what to use to |
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open a PDF file or whatever other file. That's just one example. |
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|
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You are free to continue having things broken in such a way, but this |
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is not going to be made optional in the main tree in the name of |
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avoiding a 192kB package (as is its size when installed in the system, |
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including all of its documentation and manual pages). If you are |
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building an embedded system or whatever, it's a buildtime dep and can |
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be removed in the end. However care should be taken then to have a |
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properly up to date MIME association cache shipped as well in the final |
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image for things to work properly or in a properly performant manner. |
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|
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If we are looking for something to improve here, it would be in the |
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package manager to support postinst triggers that could be grouped to |
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not be ran after each package, but only once in a while (but at least |
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once). Calling this after each package might be unnecessary, and a |
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couple times in the whole emerge session should be fine - that MIME |
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association can be a bit delayed, and not called after each package |
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postinst. |
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|
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|
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On behalf of the GNOME team, |
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Mart Raudsepp |
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