Description of problem: Install firefox with yum. Get unwanted and unneeded metacity package at the same time. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): xulrunner-1.9-1.fc9.x86_64 How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. yum install firefox 2. 3. Actual results: ============================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================= Installing: firefox x86_64 3.0-1.fc9 updates 9.3 M Installing for dependencies: fedora-gnome-theme noarch 8.0.0-2.fc9 updates 10 k libgnome x86_64 2.22.0-3.fc9 fedora 980 k metacity x86_64 2.22.0-3.fc9 fedora 2.3 M nodoka-metacity-theme noarch 0.3.90-1.fc9 fedora 8.2 k xulrunner x86_64 1.9-1.fc9 updates 8.7 M Expected results: ============================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================= Installing: firefox x86_64 3.0-1.fc9 updates 9.3 M Installing for dependencies: xulrunner x86_64 1.9-1.fc9 updates 8.7 M Additional info: The problem seems to be that firefox requires xulrunner, which requires libgnome which requires nodoka-metacity-theme, which requires metacity. But Firefox (and by implication xulrunner) categorically do no require libgnome or metacity to run, and thus they should not be a dependencies as far as I can see. Maybe they can make use of them in some way if they're installed. But they don't need them to be installed. For those of us trying to run a minimal system, dependency bugs like this are a real problem.
Yeah, it is currently a soft dependency on libgnome, as the libraries we need are accessed via dlopen() but I think it will change to be a link/runtime dependency at some point so it's probably unfair for me to make this change only to have it reappear. I'm slightly more interested in why libgnome pulls in everything it does, but I bet there's good reason for that, too...
Related bug is bug 454890 (probably duplicate, but in the context of OLPC the situation might be different).
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