Indirect dependencies on libsystemd-dev

[The Wanderer]

I've just hit an unexpected package removal during a routine
dist-upgrade against testing, which seems to be because one of the
packages in the dependency chain has added a dependency on
libsystemd-dev. I'm not sure what package would be best to report it
against, or whether it should be handle by discussion in some other way,
or whether it should be just treated as a loss and left alone.


My latest daily dist-upgrade provided a new version of
libsdl2-mixer-dev. Where the previous version (2.0.4+dfsg1-4+b1)
depended only on libsdl2-mixer-2.0-0 and libsdl2-dev, the new one
(2.6.0+dfsg-2) adds dependencies on a variety of other
development-header packages, including libfluidsynth-dev.

The current version of libfluidsynth-dev (2.2.7-1) depends on, among
other packages, libsystemd-dev. (As I haven't had libfluidsynth-dev
installed, I don't have ready access to a previous version of the
package to check its dependencies, except for the one in stable - which
depends only on libfluidsynth2.)

libsystemd-dev depends on libsystemd0.

libelogind0 conflicts with libsystemd0.

Consequently, dist-upgrade removed libsdl2-mixer-dev in order to permit
everything else to upgrade.


It seems a bit odd for libfluidsynth-dev to depend on libsystemd-dev,
and for libsdl2-mixer-dev to depend on the headers for so many other
development packages - but presumably the maintainers wouldn't have
added those dependencies if there weren't an actual need for them with
the new version of the package(d software).

Given that this dependency pattern has cropped up once, I would be very
surprised if there weren't other places where it also happens.

Is there likely to be any practical way to get this dependency chain
broken, so that the fact of running elogind doesn't leave me locked out
of compiling things against libsdl2-mixer? (Or - ideally -
libfluidsynth, or anything else that declares a dependency on
libsystemd-dev.)

If so, where might be the best place to file the bug report, or
otherwise raise this for discussion in hopes of getting that to happen?

-- 
   The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.         -- George Bernard Shaw

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