this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Linux
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This is the kind of crap that makes me glad flatpak and such exist. I don’t want a maintainer making arbitrary decisions like this, it adds unpredictability and platform inconsistency.
A similar issue I face is that on Debian the python stdlib well.. isn’t all standard. In particular they split off the venv package, and it’s an extra step that adds unnecessary complication. No other Linux distros or other OS do this, it’s so frustrating. I guess someone is super happy they saved a few hundreds kilobytes of disk space though.
Yes. All the people basing docker images off if debian, and trying to get them as small as possible. The splitting up of packages, allows people to only pull in what they need.
Sorry I was way off in my assumption that the venv package is a few hundreds kilobytes. apt is reporting 6144 bytes. 6 kilobytes. Installing python on the base bookworm image is 38.3MB. If you’re already installing python, it’s a rounding error. Also they have a separate python3-minimal package (which saves a laughable 200kb), why are they de-featuring the regular python version when they also have a separate minimal version? It makes zero sense. The python3 package should contain the entire python standard library. If it were supposed to be an addon, it wouldn’t be part of the standard library.
You are free to use a distro which does not split packages, favorite distro, Arch Linux (btw).
Or, you can install the recommended dependencies of python3. Testing in a container, the
python3
package pulls:I find it odd, because debian does this by default, actually. They account for usecases like yours, and instead you have to edit a config file or use a command line flag to get it to not install recommended dependencies.
I find it odd, because venv is a "Suggested package", actually. It isn't in the list of new packages that will be installed with python3 by default.
I think the next major release of apt is supposed to be easier to read. Unless Debian neuter it.
I do this stuff for work, unfortunately I don’t have the flexibility to choose here.