package group - change default/saved choice

hddnhrst · 2013-08-18 23:18:27

Hello,

While setting up a new system I installed chromium. As a dependency I had to make a choice from a package group called 'ttf-font'. I didn't think much and chose the first in the list (default 1) which was 'ttf-dejavu'.

I removed chromium with its dependencies, including 'ttf-dejavu'. I explicitly installed 'ttf-bitstream-vera', then chromium again without being prompt for 'ttf-font' dependency, all fine. But then I installed mplayer and pacman pulled 'ttf-dejavu' again, no prompt, I don't understand why.

Since I made that choice it has been somehow stored as my default ttf-font with pacman. Whenever I install another package which depends on a member of 'ttf-font', pacman automatically pulls 'ttf-dejavu' again, even if I am using another font package already.

How can I change my default choice for 'ttf font'? Where does pacman store the choice I made earlier? If I re-install the package the prompt for 'ttf-font' just wont show up again.

Can someone explain to me what is happening here?

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-18 23:28:53

mplayer depends on ttf-dejavu directly, while chromium depends on the ttf-font group. The old way was to simply depend on ttf-dejavu as it satisfied the need for a font in X. But after a while it was realized that the number of choices to satisfy that font dependency had grown, and there were quite a few. As such, the ttf-font group was created instead, and all the ttf fonts are put into that group.

I would imagine that the mplayer package either hasn't been updated since then, or the maintainer simply forgot to change that dep. This is probably something you might want to install a bug report for.

I don't think that people really need a whole hell of a lot of fonts, but do you really want to have just a single ttf font package on your system? I mean, do you really have issues with having more than one font package, or is this simply a curiousity?

hddnhrst · 2013-08-18 23:41:47

Oh right, I didn't recognize dejavu being a direct dependency. I don't really mind having different font packages installed, I was just curious when I saw pacman installing dejavu again.

So I guess there is nothing like default choices for package groups being stored.

Thanks for your post...

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-18 23:47:23

If you really don't want the ttf-dejavu package you can simply -Rdd it. Or even better, you can navigate to /var/lib/pacman/local/mplayer-*/desc and manually remove the ttf-dejavu line from the %DEPENDS% section. Then do a -Qdqt to see if it shows up as uneeded.

In reality though, this should be fixed by the packager. But those are a couple holdover "solutions" that don't require a rebuild.

cfr · 2013-08-19 00:09:06

I don't know about mplayer but some packages may need more than e.g. bitstream vera supplies in terms of characters. One thing about dejavu is that is provides a wide range of characters. It isn't the only option but there is certainly good reason to have something a bit more adaptable than bitstream vera installed. (Unless bitstream vera has been massively extended recently.)

For example, Vera.ttf provides 268 characters. DejaVu.ttf provides 3399.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-18 23:18:27

package group - change default/saved choice

#2 2013-08-18 23:28:53

Re: package group - change default/saved choice

#3 2013-08-18 23:41:47

Re: package group - change default/saved choice

#4 2013-08-18 23:47:23

Re: package group - change default/saved choice

#5 2013-08-19 00:09:06

Re: package group - change default/saved choice

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