Description of problem: When installing package a2ps, you get around 200 extra packages that are just not needed for normal use of the a2ps command. They are only added as a2ps as a OPTION to process the DVIPS format. The point of a2ps is that is a relatively small program to convert text to postscript it does not NEED texlive to be installed. The texlive and more specifically the texlive-dvips dependancy is basically optional and should not be a required dependancy. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. dns install a2ps 2. 3. Actual results: 200+ packages needs to be installed mostly texlive-* packages whcih are not needed. Expected results: Just a few extra packages, such as psutils Additional info:
I have been seeing this HUGE dependency for years. a2ps may (if the user wants to use "dvi" which is rare) wnt to use "dvi2ps", and it is this dependancy that causes the texlive-* packages to be installed. This is purely optional and not needed, for what is normall a very small program. I recommend removing the texlive dependancy from "a2ps" is is unwarrented and not required. Is a user actually is using dvi files than they would have texlive installed any way! Currently (and I have done this for years) is I install a2ps then tell the system to JUNK the texlive packages as they are just NOT needed and a complete waste of space if you are not using TeX or DVI. dnf install a2ps rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}\n' | egrep '^texlive' rpm -e --nodeps `!!` unfortunatally this also leaves the package management in a 'odd' state. But it is better that the HUGE unneeded "texlive" package.
Hi antofthy! Thank you for reporting the issue! Actually, even when I would remove texlive hard requires and moved them to Suggested, then html2ps (other tool, which is needed for other conversion - html to ps) needs it, so I can not do much about it.
I find it had to believe that "html2ps" needs the texlive dependency! As I install "a2ps" package and remove "texlive-*" packages and not "html2ps" Let me have a look! Man page as a link to the authors page that is now broken :-( Wayback machine show it vanished after the end of august last year (last valid page, 31 August 2018) Program is a perl script.. Though html2ps also runs fine without the TeX packages. It is only used (if available) for special case handling So TeX ("dvips" package) is also a optional package for "html2ps" for special html cases. Again "html2ps" can be installed WOTHOUT "texlive"
Checking the online user manual (using way back machine as it is offline) Required software for html2ps is Perl ImageMagick and PerlMagick pbmplus netpbm jpegsrc weblint libwww-perl Ghostscript Note that this does NOT list either dvi2ps or TeX, it is not required. I have confirmed the "html2ps" perl script only uses it if it is available for a very specific case, so again it is optional, and not normally required.
Rather than looking into html2ps user manual is more relevant to query by rpm (when html2ps is installed): $ rpm -q --requires html2ps /usr/bin/paperconf /usr/bin/perl config(html2ps) = 1.0-0.31.b7.fc29 ghostscript perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.28.0) perl(File::Temp) perl(HTTP::Cookies) perl(HTTP::Request) perl(Image::Magick) perl(LWP::UserAgent) perl(POSIX) rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1 rpmlib(FileDigests) <= 4.6.0-1 rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1 rpmlib(PayloadIsXz) <= 5.2-1 ------------ tex(dvips) tex(tex) ------------ or see spec file https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/html2ps/blob/master/f/html2ps.spec . As you can see, html2ps DOES list dvips+tex dependency, so dvi+tex dep removal in a2ps does not solve anything. If you think html2ps should not require tex+dvips, please file a bugzilla ticket on html2ps and add its number to a2ps ticket.
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