texinfo-3.12f (from Starbuck) needs to depend on gzip. texinfo uses gzip, and many packages call makeinfo in the postinstall scripts, which fails if they are installed before before gzip is installed (see the install.log from any Starbuck install for >20 examples of the failure).
the problem is that gzip requires texinfo in turn (it requires install-info), whicle install-info will require gzip, which is a nasty dependency loop. We are deliberately ignoring thsi dependency now and hanling it differently in the install. Problems installing should be fixed in more recent snapshots