[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#622837: libpcsclite1: please drop Recommends: pcscd

[Jonathan Nieder]

Ludovic Rousseau wrote:

> You think it is a bug.
> I think it is not a bug.
>
> How do you propose to solve this "bug"?
> What would be OK for you as a solution?

I don't want to argue much.  I do consider it a bug that installing
wpasupplicant causes a setuid smartcard daemon to be installed.  I
believe it is an unintended consequence.  It is not the best thing
to happen behind the user's back.

That said:

 - I could easily be wrong;
 - I am not claiming you made some bad decision before, just that
   this is a problem for Debian to solve (that's what the BTS is
   for, after all).

I would propose:

 - if users of the library will crash or otherwise fail if pcscd
   is not installed, mentioning that in the package description;

 - otherwise, downgrading the Recommends to a Suggests and
   notifying the maintainers of reverse-dependencies that they
   should add Depends: pcscd.

No doubt there are plenty of alternative fixes possible.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan