From your responses I gather that resolving dependencies at file level would cause too many complications for built libraries but not so for header-only libraries. Why not at least take advantage of the header-only status of a large number of libraries? I suppose this would create an incentive to split existing libraries into a built and header-only library, but that is not so bad is it?
That's a nice first step, but even then you're relying on library maintainers to remember yet another thing to update, and that for an infrequent state change. ___ Rob
Thanks for clearing it up for me. My conclusion is that there is scope for reducing dependencies by being more selective in deciding what libraries to install. However, there are minor complications for header-only libraries and major complications for built libraries. I find this relevant because some of the current efforts to reduce dependencies seem problematic too.