Re: [RFC 0/5] doc: api docs overhaul

[Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org>]

On Wed, 13 Oct 2021, David Bremner <david@tethera.net> wrote:
> Jani Nikula <jani@nikula.org> writes:
>
>> The main downside is that Hawkmoth is not available via distro
>> packaging, only PyPI.
>
> I guess another issue is the new dependency on Clang +
> bindings. Although maybe that's a fair trade for dropping doxygen.

Doxygen already depends on libclang:

$ dpkg -s doxygen | grep "^Depends:"
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.29), libclang-cpp11 (>= 1:11.0.1), libclang1-11 (>=
  1:5.0~svn298832-1~), libgcc-s1 (>= 3.0), libllvm11 (>=
  1:9~svn298832-1~), libstdc++6 (>= 7), libxapian30 (>= 1.4.14~)

The difference is that the libclang python bindings depend on the dev
packages:

$ dpkg -s python3-clang-11 | grep "^Depends:"
Depends: python3, libclang-11-dev

$ dpkg -s libclang-11-dev | grep "^Depends:"
Depends: libstdc++-10-dev, libgcc-10-dev, libobjc-10-dev, libclang1-11
  (= 1:11.0.1-2), libclang-common-11-dev (= 1:11.0.1-2)

I think you're probably in a better position to judge the relative sizes
of the dependency trees than me, but the libclang dependency is already
there with Doxygen. The Python parts are pretty small, it's the dev
packages vs. Doxygen that makes the difference.

> What would be the plan for transition while distros package hawkmoth?
> Embed it in notmuch? Ship the compiled docs?

I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that. What do projects do when they
depend on packages from PyPI? It's a kind of chicken and egg problem.

I saw that you made the Debian packaging request; many thanks! But is
that enough? What is your stance on imposing new dependencies on other
distros?


BR,
Jani.