tech-pkg: encumbered dependencies considered harmful (audio/sox and lame)

Subject: encumbered dependencies considered harmful (audio/sox and lame)
To: None <tech-pkg@netbsd.org>
From: Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 03/06/2007 14:16:54

I ran pkg_rolling-replace to update, and it failed on sox because sox
requires audio/lame. lame has an apparently messy patent situation
(in many countries; this doesn't seem to be a us-only issue) and is
marked LICENSE= and thus won't build.
This seems to have started with sox 13 in revision 1.40 of
pkgsrc/audio/sox/Makefile.
As a general rule I think that packages (without a LICENSE tag) should
not depend on packages with a LICENSE= tag unless it is really
necessary (meaning the package would be not useful, or less than 50%
as useful) without them. (It would make sense to have a PKG_OPTION to
indicate that one wants the dependency, but I think simply not present
is better than simply present.)
So, I'd like to drop the lame bl3 line from sox's Makefile, assuming
it still builds (in process). Any objections?