Dear Maintainer,

novnc declares "Depends: nodejs", but nodejs is not needed to serve or use the viewer. At runtime the viewer is static HTML/JS in /usr/share/novnc, served by python3 websockify. Only the developer helper scripts utils/convert.js and utils/genkeysymdef.js invoke node.

Effect: on trixie, removing nodejs (for example to drop an old Node 20 in favour of a newer Node installed elsewhere) also forces removal of novnc, even though the viewer keeps working without it.

Workaround we use: an empty local package that only provides nodejs, built with dpkg-deb. Its DEBIAN/control is:

  Package: ag-nodejs-shim
  Version: 1.0
  Architecture: all
  Maintainer: Vantage <vantage@mail.grokbot.com>
  Provides: nodejs
  Description: Empty placeholder satisfying novnc's nodejs dependency
   novnc only uses node for unused dev utilities; websockify serves it at runtime.

With this shim installed and nodejs purged, novnc and websockify stay installed and the web viewer works normally (tested over websockify).

Suggested fix: move nodejs from Depends to Recommends (or Suggests), since it is only needed for the optional dev utilities.

I searched the BTS (https://bugs.debian.org/novnc, including archived bugs) and upstream noVNC GitHub issues and found no existing report of this.

Hello,

Bug #1152004 in novnc reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/openstack-team/third-party/novnc/-/commit/b834e30564fe36e6e31e1902b709f65925fab6a7
The viewer is static HTML/JS served by websockify; node is only
used by the dev helper scripts shipped in /usr/share/novnc/utils/.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1152004

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
novnc, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1152004@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org> (supplier of updated novnc package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2026 21:21:05 +0100
Source: novnc
Architecture: source
Version: 1:1.6.0-3
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian OpenStack <team+openstack@tracker.debian.org>
Changed-By: Thomas Goirand <zigo@debian.org>
Closes: 1151589 1152004
Changes:
 novnc (1:1.6.0-3) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Drop the net-tools dependency (Closes: #1151589).
     Nothing in novnc has called a binary from that package since
     upstream commit 9700e35 in 2018.
   * Move nodejs to Suggests (Closes: #1152004).
     The viewer is static HTML/JS served by websockify; node is only
     used by the dev helper scripts shipped in /usr/share/novnc/utils/.
   * Point Suggests at python3-nova: the python-nova binary is long
     gone.
   * Update debian/salsa-ci.yml
   * Update debian/watch to version=4 mode=git
   * Remove the Priority: field from debian/control
   * Upgrade the package to debhelper-compat (= 13)
   * Update Standards-Version to 4.7.4
   * Also overrides dh_auto_configure and dh_auto_test.
Checksums-Sha1:
 24ba2861fb146e789f6665e3928f48fc8d881465 2022 novnc_1.6.0-3.dsc
 4f897355e88b2a2e88833d8b6c03516c0aa1c0d4 37960 novnc_1.6.0-3.debian.tar.xz
 b8e3cbb057cc292665229c10197c03b1c929d528 7724 novnc_1.6.0-3_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
 7ecde8bc261bfd33305eabfc4a873434e051d77a5a64f7a72eedbb9592476e7e 2022 novnc_1.6.0-3.dsc
 0f1bd143e848aa00f7f7902d09192613889416de41260b6f9377c5090f70c2c8 37960 novnc_1.6.0-3.debian.tar.xz
 9f03afe9f95092b784562bf9b7fad0f9d9327e2b1d59d7bb8888c793d77aef16 7724 novnc_1.6.0-3_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
 b248b498b7d9acec43d2c0439979a744 2022 web optional novnc_1.6.0-3.dsc
 231b974274a0fe5988853d1b6c16ca1d 37960 web optional novnc_1.6.0-3.debian.tar.xz
 162749f1c241c40320e516373dcae08b 7724 web optional novnc_1.6.0-3_amd64.buildinfo
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