News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Left-Pad (2024) by eviks on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @08:35AM (#44246958)
> the left-pad incident helped shatter that myth

In what way? Have the dependency trees gotten significantly smaller since then?

Re:Left-Pad (2024) by beej71 on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @09:58AM (#44247708)
I don't think so, but at least awareness of dependencies as liabilities has increased.

I installed `pass` (the lightweight password manager) on a fresh headless system the other day and it brought in like 60 packages including a bunch of X stuff.

Re:Left-Pad (2024) by BenjiWiebe on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @12:16PM (#44249136)
Just checked on a fresh install of Fedora 42 "custom operating system" install, so pretty minimal. Didn't even check the "standard tools" box or whatever it's called.

Installing 'pass' pulled in: desktop-file-utils emacs-filesystem git-core libpng qrencode qrencode-libs

Plus weak (optional) dependencies: libwayland-client mailcap wl-clipboard xdg-utils

12 packages, 5 MB download, 24 MB installed. Could be worse, could be better.

I was honestly expecting Fedora to have less than that.

Re:Left-Pad (2024) by beej71 on Thursday June 12, 2025 @12:25PM (#44259570)
On my particular (Ubuntu) system, `debtree pass` shows 301 dependencies (includes subdependencies) for a total install of 130 MB.

One of the big trigger is the dependency pass->xclip. That sets off a big cascade of X.