Now that I discovered this nice flag I checked a few of my packages. It works nice for the gnome-chemistry-utils application packages. Unfortunately libgcu0 does not benefit from the flag because of libtool bug #347650. However there is an appreciably difference in the dependencies for the plugin and application packages, where the amount of dependencies decreased. For example compare the old
Depends: iceweasel | iceape-browser | xulrunner, libart-2.0-2 (>= 2.3.18), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1), libcairo2 (>= 1.4.0), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.2.1), libgconf2-4 (>= 2.13.5), libgcu0 (<< 0.9), libgcu0 (>= 0.8), libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1, libglade2-0 (>= 1:2.6.1), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.14.0), libglu1-mesa | libglu1, libgnomecanvas2-0 (>= 2.11.1), libgnomeprint2.2-0 (>= 2.17.0), libgnomeprintui2.2-0 (>= 2.17.0), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgoffice-0-4 (>= 0.4.2), libgsf-1-114 (>= 1.14.7), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libgtkglext1, libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libnspr4-0d (>= 1.8.0.10), libopenbabel2, liborbit2 (>= 1:2.14.1), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.18.3), libsm6, libstdc++6 (>= 4.2.1), libx11-6, libxml2 (>= 2.6.27), libxmu6, libxt6, zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-1)
and the new Depends field for gcu-plugin:
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.2.1), libgcu0 (<< 0.9), libgcu0 (>= 0.8), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.14.0), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libnspr4-0d (>= 1.8.0.10), libstdc++6 (>= 4.2.1), libx11-6, libxml2 (>= 2.6.29), iceweasel | iceape-browser | xulrunner
As another example bluefish now (the next upload) really only shows the necessary dependencies. Compare the current:
Depends: libart-2.0-2 (>= 2.3.18), libaspell15 (>= 0.60), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libbonobo2-0 (>= 2.15.0), libbonoboui2-0 (>= 2.15.1), libc6 (>= 2.6.1-1), libcairo2 (>= 1.4.0), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.4.0), libgconf2-4 (>= 2.13.5), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.14.0), libgnome2-0 (>= 2.17.3), libgnomecanvas2-0 (>= 2.11.1), libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.17.1), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), liborbit2 (>= 1:2.14.1), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.18.2), libpcre3 (>= 6.0), libpopt0 (>= 1.10), libsm6, libx11-6, libxcomposite1 (>= 1:0.3-1), libxcursor1 (>> 1.1.2), libxdamage1 (>= 1:1.1), libxext6, libxfixes3 (>= 1:4.0.1), libxi6, libxinerama1, libxrandr2 (>= 2:1.2.0), libxrender1
to the “upcoming” Depends field:
Depends: libaspell15 (>= 0.60), libc6 (>= 2.7-1), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.14.0), libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.17.1), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.18.3), libpcre3 (>= 6.0)
Nice result. I should check (my) other packages too :) Maybe that's also something for debichems TODO list.
