Re: optional requirements

On Thu, 2002-06-20 at 10:56, Martin Jansen wrote: > Hi, > > I just thought of having "optional dependencies" in PEAR packages. > Example: A package provides a freaky caching feature that is used under > special circumstances. For the normal package usage it is not necessary > to have Cache installed, but in some rare cases it actually is. > > At such a point it would be good to have the possibility to mark a > dependency optional: > > <deps> > <dep type="pkg" rel="ge" version="1.0" > optional>Cache</dep> > </deps> > > During the package installation the user will be asked if he also wants > to install the optional packages to make all features of the package > available. If he does not chose to install them, the basic functions of > the package will work as expected, but he may not be able to use some > advanced stuff. > > Comments? I had the exact same idea yesterday, but it'll have to be like this to be valid XML: <dep type="pkg" rel="ge" version="1.0" optional="yes">Cache</dep> To me this means, "contains functionality that will be enabled if the Cache package is installed, if Cache is installed, version 1.0 or newer is required". - Stig -- Stig Sæther Bakken, Fast Search & Transfer ASA, Trondheim, Norway http://pear.php.net/wishlist.php/ssb