[Bug 283398] x11-wm/xfce4 (xfce meta-port) is missing a dependency on xorg-fonts

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=283398

Guido Falsi <madpilot@FreeBSD.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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             Status|New                         |Open
              Flags|maintainer-feedback?(xfce@F |maintainer-feedback+
                   |reeBSD.org)                 |
                 CC|                            |madpilot@FreeBSD.org

--- Comment #1 from Guido Falsi <madpilot@FreeBSD.org> ---
Hi!

Thanks for reporting.

Although, while maybe you make a point, I'm not sure your conclusion is
correct.

There are multiple things to consider:

- XFCE (like any othe DE) is an xorg addition and depends on having a properly
configured xorg, so you should first follow directions from handbook chapter 5
and then directions for xfce. That implies also running `pkg install xorg` (or
xorg-minimal) which will install fonts.

Regarding this point, the fact that using only the xfce metaport almost works
is just a lucky coincidence, because it obviously requires a lot of xorg parts
to just compile. Many other things are going to be missing without a properly
setup xorg environment. I guess wayland in the future will be even more complex
on this regard.

- Ignoring the previous point and accepting adding a runtime dependency for the
sake of instaling xfce directly (but risking missing other more obscure xorg
dependencies), the `xorg-fonts` port is way overkill as a dependency. And there
is a more disturbing point. Just one font would be needed and the user may want
to chooose, forcing an hard dependency would be not optimal. Also, due to the
nature of X11, it is possible to have fonts installed on a separate machine.

We do strive to keep this kind of nice to have dependencies low. Many users are
not happy when dependencies they do not require and cannot control are added

Anyway, in case a dependency is added, it should be just one basic font itself,
not a metaport installing multiple not all necessary fonts. Could you identify
the font being used by a plain XFCE at installation time?


--- Personal opinion below

I actually believe that one should first configure xorg and then a desktop
environment, and not expect the desktop environment to make xorg work by magic.
And anyway that is the DE work, not he port work to do.

Otherwise all DE metaports should depend on all of xorg when they do not
really, and we would be harming power users options for fine tuning.

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