#681860 xscreensaver-data: Please remove libwww-perl dependency

Package:
xscreensaver-data
Source:
xscreensaver
Description:
Screen saver modules for screensaver frontends
Submitter:
Göran Weinholt
Date:
2015-07-21 19:48:08 UTC
Severity:
wishlist
#681860#5
Date:
2012-07-17 08:24:01 UTC
From:
To:
xscreensaver is completely usable without installing all these
additional perl packages:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libencode-locale-perl libfile-listing-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl
  libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl
  libhttp-negotiate-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl
  libnet-http-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl xscreensaver
  xscreensaver-data

In the changelog you referenced this bug report:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xscreensaver/+bug/971140

I don't even have xscreensaver-gl (where GLSlideshow comes from)
installed, so installing libwww-perl etc only wastes disk space.
Please change the Depends: to a Recommends:.
#681860#10
Date:
2012-07-21 22:21:46 UTC
From:
To:
Thanks for your report. It is /usr/bin/xscreensaver-getimage-file
which uses libwww-perl, and this script is part of xscreensaver. If
only GL screensavers use this script we could move it to
xscreensaver-gl but I will have to check if that is the case.

Tormod
#681860#15
Date:
2012-07-23 14:39:38 UTC
From:
To:
Tormod Volden <debian.tormod@gmail.com> writes:

Perhaps there are other screensavers that also use it. I want to make
the point that libwww-perl is not necessary for xscreensaver to work,
and therefore it should be in Recommends rather than Depends. By default
Recommends are installed by apt, so moving libwww-perl to Recommends
still solves the problem that you wanted to solve.

Regards,
#681860#20
Date:
2012-07-28 09:19:34 UTC
From:
To:
But, if not having libwww-perl installed breaks parts of xscreensaver,
doesn't that call for a Depends? I would agree to Recommends if the
functionality in question would be disabled gracefully, but for now
some screensavers just fail and spew out an error message.

I do however share your interest in keeping dependencies minimal, so
if we can improve this I am all ears.
#681860#25
Date:
2012-08-02 16:51:54 UTC
From:
To:
Tormod Volden <debian.tormod@gmail.com> writes:

They actually fail? If that's the case, then please close this bug. What
I've observed is that those screensavers that need an image, e.g.
Ripples, will use a Television-style color bar image instead.

I don't believe I can give you any more input on this issue, except to
say that the script that fails contains some interesting language:
grep Larry /usr/bin/xscreensaver-getimage-file

Regards,
#681860#30
Date:
2013-01-13 04:43:35 UTC
From:
To:
xscreensaver-data actually depends on libwww-perl to download images
from the web, disabled by default. The installed size of
xscreensaver-data is 1209KB, where libwww-perl depends on 18 others
packages totaling 5167KB.

I wrote a patch to dynamically load the LWP module at runtime and print
an error suggesting the user to install libwww-perl if not present.

I tested this patch only without libwww-perl installed: anyone wants to
test it on a system with libwww-perl?

Ciao
#681860#35
Date:
2013-01-13 04:54:41 UTC
From:
To:
Actually "xscreensaver-text" already does something very similar with LWP.
#681860#40
Date:
2013-01-13 05:26:09 UTC
From:
To:
Do you mean without?

That was my first guess, but xscreensaver-text (in the version included
by Debian) uses the Socket module instead of LWP. So I searched where
LWP is actually used and found it only in xscreensaver-getimage-file

Ciao
#681860#45
Date:
2013-01-13 05:33:56 UTC
From:
To:
I have no idea what ancient version Debian has seen fit to include, but if your distro is giving you a version of xscreensaver-text that's more than two and a half years out of date, maybe you should get a better distro.

Sending someone a patch without making sure you're running the latest version first is a rookie move.
#681860#50
Date:
2015-07-21 19:45:56 UTC
From:
To:
Just to summarize this for later:
- Upstream doesn't use url by default, so it will run fine without libperl-www
- Debian, in its branding patches, sets url (for planet.debian.org) as
default so some tools will complain if libperl-www is not installed.

If we modify our branding patches to use text instead, we can safely
move it to Suggests instead of Recommends. But as long as we use url
as default, Recommends seems correct.