Re: incus: doesn't include dependencies required for running virtual machines.

[ahesford <ahesford@users.noreply.github.com>]

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New comment by ahesford on void-packages repository

https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/49267#issuecomment-2020089155

Comment:
It's not about what is considered "core functionality" as advertised in the project's features, but whether the application functions without the dependencies installed. Plenty of people use incus to manage containers without needing extra dependencies for virtual machines, so we don't thrust those dependencies on every user.

We don't expose optional dependencies through metapackages because there is no meaningful limit. If we don't choose one of "every combination gets a package" and "no combination gets a package", all other options will capriciously inconvenience some class of users who want to use a package with some arbitrary subset of optional dependencies.

In Void, users are expected to understand how to use the software they want to install. That includes knowing that some software might have features requiring add-ons, and how to look for the pieces that are required. If there are some concerns raised by our particular packaging choices, then a "README.voidlinux" file is the preferred place to discuss those matters.

If incus requires special symbolic links to find firmware files because "most distributions" don't place them where the program expects, it sounds more like incus needs to do a better job conforming to people's systems.