Subject: GCC Dependency?
From: Jeffrey Walton <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 03:42:01 -0400
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to install emacs-nw, a/k/a emacs-nox, on a production Fedora
server to edit configuration files. I had to install Zile instead
because of all of Emac's dependencies, which now seems to include
compilers. Also see Red Hat Bug #2316238,
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2316238>.

I think the dev team made a bad architectural decision when it decided
to allow the cornucopia of dependencies to grow, which now appears to
include compilers. For my use case -- a production server facing the
internet -- I do not want extra packages, like compilers and linkers.
I am not trying to help an attacker produce executable code on my
machine.

I think it would be wise to remove the requirement of a compiler for a
simple text editor. The team needs to provide a simple text editor (in
addition to the other bloated offerings).

For completeness:

    $ dnf info emacs-nw
    Name         : emacs-nw
    Epoch        : 1
    Version      : 29.4
    Release      : 9.fc40
    Architecture : x86_64
    Size         : 31 M
    Source       : emacs-29.4-9.fc40.src.rpm
    Repository   : updates

Jeff