[Pkg-dns-devel] Bug#865561: Bug#865561: closed by Christian Hofstaedtler <zeha at debian.org> (Re: Bug#865561: pdns_server does not start after upgrade to stretch)

[Juha Heinanen]

Ondřej Surý writes:

> You can always use apt-get --no-recommends if you don't want the 
> recommended packages to be installed.

I don't know that Debian policy says about distribution upgrades, but in
my opinion it is not good practice if upgrade of a perfectly well
configured package fails.

> I think that Recommends/Suggests should reflect their actual meanings (e.g 
> it is recommended to have bind plugin installed under common conditions). 
> It should not be changes to workaround settings of apt.

Common condition of powerdns is to use a database, not bind backend.
Database support is the very reason most people use powerdns.

> There might be bug if the normal (clean) install with bind plugin is 
> broken, but if it's just an interaction with your specific configuration, 
> then it is your responsibility to review the packages that are going to be 
> installed during the release upgrade.

Hundreds of packages got upgraded in my Jessie -> Stretch transition.
In practice, it is impossible to review all of them in advance.  In my
case, pdns-server was the only one that broke the upgrade.

-- Juha