To confirm, the pantheon desktop packages have an appropriate dependency on the DBus interface instead, so that at least one of signond or gsignond gets pulled in if neither are currently installed? Do they have a Suggests: to prefer gsignond?

Yes, the Pantheon packages only depend on libsignon-glib, which depends on (signond >= 8.60 or gsignond >= 1.2.0). switchboard-plug-onlineaccounts already Recommends gsignond, should I change this to a Suggests instead?

No, that should be fine, assuming that switchboard-plug-onlineaccounts is a hard dependency of the desktop. Confirm that, and I'll merge this.

Well, it's still part of the default packages for the group. I don't want to make it a hard dependency though, since it really works as an optional plugin providing additional functionality. If the hard dependency is a hard requirement (no pun intended), I will change it, of course.

@decathorpe Well, my point is that you want to make sure that something is guaranteed to indicate to DNF that gsignond is preferred if neither is currently installed. So if switchboard-plugin-onlineaccounts isn't a guaranteed component, I think you need to add Suggests: gsignond to libsignon-glib. That way there's no ambiguity in case someone chose to install the packages by hand and leaves out the switchboard. Or someone opts to drop it from the default comps group, etc.

Ah, I see.

The only other Pantheon component that uses the signon services (yet) is the Music application. I can add the preference for gsignond over signond there, as well. That should provide the necessary dependency information.

(I don't want to mess with the signon-glib package too much since it's used by some KDE components AFAIK)

Ah, I see.
The only other Pantheon component that uses the signon services (yet) is the Music application. I can add the preference for gsignond over signond there, as well. That should provide the necessary dependency information.
(I don't want to mess with the signon-glib package too much since it's used by some KDE components AFAIK)

This isn't "messing" with it. If the package already says "I can work with either", all this change does is say "if I have both options, pick this one".

Alright, I've added Suggests: gsignond to the signon-glib package, builds are pending for rawhide and fedora 30.

LGTM. Merging.

Thanks!