How to announce new optional dependencies? [was: What KDE would like distributions to do]

[Martin Graesslin]

> > because of non-linux platforms
> > 
> > 	- We expect Linux distributions to fulfill them
> 
> Then new dependencies should be communicated in advance, or when the
> tarballs are made ready for a new (beta) release. Sometimes it's guesswork,
> or checking the CMake output, which is not ideal with automated build
> systems.

How do you suggest this to work? The last time I run into the situation that I 
needed to add an optional dependency and tell distros about it, it failed 
horribly. Almost no distro got the memo :-( In retrospection I think I sent it 
out too early: when the dependency was added, not when we released. On the 
other hand it needs to be sent out as soon as possible for constantly 
integrating distros.

My best ideas currently are:
* we need better output from CMake (more structured storage of feature info -> 
xml?)
* we need to mark the optional, but in truth required dependencies
* we give up on the idea of making things optional and turn everything as 
mandatory and open up for the big systemd bikeshedding discussions ;-)

Cheers
Martin
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