[packagekit] API proposal: Extended method to fetch dependency information

[Richard Hughes]

On 29 June 2013 00:12, Matthias Klumpp <matthias at tenstral.net> wrote:
> DEPENDENCY_TYPE_DEPENDS - The hard dependencies of a package

Sounds fine.

> DEPENDENCY_TYPE_SUGGESTS - Packages which this package suggests to be installed

Sounds okay.

> DEPENDENCY_TYPE_REVERSE_DEPENDS - The reverse dependencies on this
> package (= other packages depending on this package)

I don't think REVERSE_DEPENDS is very clear what this means. Perhaps
DEPENDENCY_TYPE_REQUIRES?

> For Debian distros, a _RECOMMENDS type (stronger dependency than
> Suggests, but not as strong as Depends) would also be nice, but not
> necessary.

I think if you include this, you need to define what each term means,
with examples.

> Adding this function would deprecate the current GetDepends() and
> GetRequires() calls and unify them in one new call.

I think that's fine, on the premise you call the backend
get_requires() and get_depends() methods as a compat fallback, or
maybe just convert all the backends to the new scheme. The only
drawback I can see with using a depends_kind is that a backend can't
say "I support DEPENDENCY_TYPE_ENHANCES but not _RECOMMENDS", and that
was the original reason of having two different methods.

Richard.