On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 08:16:06PM -0700, James Powell wrote:
> I never said it was set in stone.
>
> All I suggested was if you install a package like SDL, then you install all of SDL, not just part of it. This reduces overhead of making multiple packages, simplifies the distribution, and makes the work of the package maintainer easier.
>
> To a new person using Devuan, they see multiple packages that are for various purposes.
>
> They ask, what are all these for?
>
> Some might ask, Why not just one simple package?
>
> That's where Devuan can bring packaging sanity in as well.

Let's say someone is running off of an SD card, or someone is making a
system for converting into a live system with a tool like
bootcd-write. Say this someone needs to be able to make dns queries,
and wants to use host(1) to do so. Right now in standard
debian/devuan, all this person needs to do is to install bind-host,
which just brings in required libraries. If the bind software were one
single package, this would require installing the entire name server
just for using one program to do dns queries. This would waste space
which is important in the scenarios I described, and would also use
unnecessary bandwidth, which is important if someone is paying per
megabyte for example. Granted, this may not be the best example, but
it does illustrate I think the reasons for smaller multiple packages
VS. one big package.

Greg


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