Intendeddepends

Intendeddepends is a term used in discussions of software packaging and build systems to describe a proposed or hypothetical metadata concept for indicating dependencies that are intended under certain conditions or features, rather than universally required for all installations. It is not part of a widely adopted standard, but appears in design notes and proposal discussions about how to model featureful software.

Definition and purpose

Intendeddepends would annotate dependencies that a package author expects users to install if they enable specific features or run in certain environments. Unlike a strict Depends relationship, intendeddepends serves as guidance for tooling and decision-making rather than an enforceable requirement. The goal is to help users understand which libraries or packages become relevant when optional features are enabled, or when different runtime configurations are chosen.

Structure and usage

In a hypothetical manifest, intendeddepends might be represented as a separate field or annotation alongside traditional dependencies. The field could list one or more candidate dependencies and may be scoped by feature flags, configuration options, or environmental conditions. Tooling could use intendeddepends to present recommendations, perform conditional installation planning, or generate feature-based install graphs without forcing immediate installation of non-essential components.

Adoption and considerations

Intendeddepends remains speculative and is not part of established packaging ecosystems. Potential benefits include clearer feature modeling and improved user guidance. Potential drawbacks include added complexity, the risk of inconsistent interpretations across tools, and interoperability challenges with existing dependency semantics such as Depends, Recommends, or Suggests.

See also

Depends, Recommends, Suggests, feature flags, conditional dependencies.