the GIMP and Samba

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 15:19:39 -0700, Chad Perrin <perrin at apotheon.com> wrote:
> Can someone enlighten me as to why the GIMP package would require
> libsmbclient?  This strikes me as the very height of software bloat
> absurdity.  Maybe I'm missing something.

Welcome to the glory of rapid application development and
"modern" programming! :-)

According to your question: I am confident that the SMB
dependency is brought into Gimp by the gutenprint module
(can't even tell you exactly what it does, may have
something to do with CUPS I also don't have any use for).
CUPS seems to be hardcoded into Gimp even if you don't
use it (due to a normal printer).

The SMB dependency is also used by several Gnome-related
dependencies, such as Gnome-VFS, a part of nearly every
"file open" dialog in Gtk.

The /var/db/pkg/<portname>/+REQUIRED_BY file tells you
about the next higher stage of dependency (maybe another
library or a "primary program" - the thing you actually
want to use).

Note that observations like this are the reason you have
to constantly buy a new computer in order to keep doing
the same things at the same average speed. :-)


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...