I've run into -doc noarch packages that cannot be installed without
pulling in a long chain of dependencies.
I've thought it is widely accepted practice since Fedora Extras that
documentation packages may be installed independently, i.e. without having
to install an application and all its deps. Especially if the documentation
can be displayed with any browser or viewer. It is convenient if one can
install/remove Documentation packages without any dependencies.
It could be that packagers apply the "Requiring Base Package" guidelines
to -doc subpackages, because the "Documentation" guidelines don't recommend
otherwise:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Requiring_Base_Package
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Documentation
Can we please agree on keeping -doc packages free of dependencies unless
the documentation is in a custom format specific to an application? (such
as preprocessed+compressed instead of plain HTML, PDF, TXT)
[...]
What about "-javadoc" packages? Generated HTML documentation in noarch
packages that may be displayed with any HTML viewer.
Here it seems packagers add a dependency on "jpackage-utils" only to
pull in dependencies that own the /usr/share/javadoc directory. It's
not jpackage-utils but javapackages-tools that owns it.
# repoquery --whatprovides /usr/share/javadoc
javapackages-tools-0:3.4.1-1.fc20.noarch
javapackages-tools-0:3.4.1-1.fc20.noarch
# repoquery --whatrequires javapackages-tools|wc -l
2559
# repoquery --whatrequires jpackage-utils|wc -l
2557
As a result, one cannot install -javadoc packages without having to
install dependencies.
Why is it like that? Just to apply the "BuildRequires and Requires"
guidelines for Java packages also to -javadoc packages?
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Java#Javadoc_installation
Could we relax the Java packaging guidelines for -javadoc packages, please?