Bug#389118: [Deb-scipy-devel] Bug#389118: python-numpy: will not import unless python-numpy-ext is installed

[Matthias Klose]

Robert Kern writes:
> Matthias Klose wrote:
> > Robert Kern writes:
> >> Thank you. As an upstream numpy developer, I can verify that the contents of 
> >> python-numpy-ext cannot be separated from python-numpy.
> > 
> > I assume the separation of the base package and the extension packages
> > comes from the Numeric and numarray packages in debian. The extension
> > did make sense to avoid the installation of the blas and lapack
> > libraries; basic functionality can be used without having these
> > libraries be installed.  In which ways did numpy change, so that this
> > is not possible anymore?
> 
> numpy is a unitary package, now. You can't remove subpackages and still have a
> functional numpy. Look at the __init__.py:
> 
>     import linalg
>     import fft
>     import random
> 
> The core has the same optional dependency on BLAS as the linalg subpackage for
> the numpy.dot() function, and the Debian package python-numpy already has the
> dependency on LAPACK and BLAS Debian packages, so folding python-numpy-ext into
> it will not add any more dependencies than already exist.

ok, do the Debian maintainers agree, if I prepare such an upload?

> Also, for f2py to be functional, the two files in python-numpy-dev also need to
> be present. It would save everyone some grief if those files were in
> python-numpy itself. At the very least, python-numpy-dev should be in the
> Recommends of python-numpy, and the errors one gets when trying to use f2py
> without it should be documented in python-numpy's README.Debian such that users
> know what is going on.

Or put f2py into the -dev package? Debian has the distinction between
runtime and development packages; to make the package work out of the
box, you would have to depend on compilers as well, which is not
desired when you install the package just as a dependency of another
package. Maybe another option could be a renaming of python-numpy to
python-numpy-runtime and python-numpy-dev to python-numpy, so that you
get what upstream wants you to get.

  Matthias