When gnome is installed, xscreensaver depends on yelp. I don't see the point, as the ./configure correctly detects the presence (or not) of gnome-help. After unmerging yelp, xscreensaver correctly use mozilla to display help. gnome ebuild already add a bunch of not truly usefull packages I struggle to keep out of my systems, I don't want them reintroduced by packages who don't need them. If someone has gnome AND yelp, xscreensaver will use it. If someone says it has gnome and has not yelp, it must be on purpose as it already had to take a manual step to remove it. So please don't go against it's will.
so you want gnome, but you don't want yelp? so should i be putting mozilla into the deps as well? then we'll get a bunch of people complaining that xscreensaver depends on mozilla. maybe you should just USE="-gnome" emerge xscreensaver or if you knowingly break dependencies, why don't you just use --inject to fool portage into thinking you already have yelp installed?
I think (and tested) that having no dependency on help at all would not break anything. If you like, I can unmerge mozilla to see what happens but I'm pretty sure xscreensaver will compile and my screen will lock as well. I respectfully bring to your attention that yelp is a gnome-extra packages, not a gnome-base package. If extra means something, a user should have the right to choose not to use it, especially in regard of an other package that works pretty fine without it.
perhaps USE="-gnome" emerge gnome-light is more in vein with what you want then? The Gnome ebuild is a wrapper for the complete gnome desktop (minus usability things atm), and will stay so. Xscreensaver + USE="gnome" signifies you want the -gnome- counterparts of software, which means yelp for help browsing. Preferrably i'd see mozilla not installed and epiphany only depending on the GRE, though that isnt possible at the moment. Breaking the -gnome- USE flag for a case when you can as well do "emerge -i yelp" isn't in my view of a good packaging policy.
> perhaps USE="-gnome" emerge gnome-light is more in vein with what you want then? Strangely enough, yelp is also included in gnome-light. But yes, it may interest me. Whatever, that is not the point. > The Gnome ebuild is a wrapper for the complete gnome desktop (minus usability > things atm), and will stay so. I'm perfectly aware of this and never intended to ask for a change. > Xscreensaver + USE="gnome" signifies you want the -gnome- counterparts of > software, which means yelp for help browsing. What is the purpose since someone with gnome (let's call it gnome-full) has already yelp merged as a dependence of gnome and autoconf will detect it ? > [SNIP] Breaking the -gnome- USE flag for a case when you can as well do > "emerge -i yelp" isn't in my view of a good packaging policy. I didn't ask for that. I know how to inject a package and I filled the bug because I thought it may bring something to others. I think it's normal that gnome-full depends on yelp. I wasn't aware of the precise meaning of the USE="gnome", for me it was "Adds GNOME support", not "Adds gnome as defined in gnome-full" and therefore could be used even by someone not wanting extras. Maybe it deserves an effort in the documentation since gnome-light exists to explicitely discourage these gnome users to USE gnome. But above all, I'm not convinced that having this dependency changes something in the way xscreensaver is emerged or behave. And that's the only question I ask. Does it changes something for gnome-full users if that line isn't in the ebuild ?
Yes, it does in fact change things. Dependability. If we leave things to autoconf magic, then the reverse dependency tree will be severely broken, because portage will not recognize or realize dependencies, leaving things in a horrid state.
