We are talking about runtime dependencies here, not build or test. core/ should be selfcontained, packages in core/ only depend on other core/ packages. All packages can depend on /core since its considered mandatory. Hence the name, you can run arch with just this repo. extra/ is maintained by arch devs and contains additional software that is "considered crucial to the distribution." [1] /community is maintained by TUs and contains even more additional but not-so-crucial software. And AUR is the free-for-all for everything else. Only AUR packages can depend in AUR packages, nothing else. /extra and /community are both considered safe and cross-dependencies should be fine, but imho /extra shouldn't depend on /community. But this would mean that our beloved arch devs will have to adopt every single dependency (which sounds like quite a bit of additional work), or to disable certain features to prevent such dependencies. There is afaik no rule that prevents /extra packages from depending on /community, but the number should be kept small. [1] <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> https <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> :// <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> wiki.archlinux.org <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community>/ <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> index.php <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community>/ <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> Official_repositories <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community># <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> community <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#community> Am 12.02.2015 11:54 schrieb "WorMzy Tykashi" <wormzy.tykashi@xxxxxxxxx>: > On 11 February 2015 at 03:39, Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Wasn't there a guideline somewhere against this? Should I raise bugs > > when I see this is taking place? > > > > Specific example that I just noticed is mpd, because libnfs in > > community updated. Of course, mpd was updated within 12 hours or so, > > and I understand packages are mostly best maintained by those who > > actually know/care about the project, hence I just want to ask the > > question, is this considered a bug or not? > > It seems to be an increasingly common occurrence -- the latest > integrity check[1] reported 50 x86_64 extra/ packages that depend on > community packages, whereas a year ago the same check found only > 29[2]. > > I *think* the general rule is that core/ can depend on extra/, and > extra/ can depend on community/, but core/ cannot depend on > community/. I could only find one post supporting this theory, > however. [3] > > [1] > https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2015-February/026973.html > [2] > https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2014-February/025862.html > [3] > https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/arch-dev-public/2011-May/020396.html >