Package: debian-policy Version: 3.9.1.0 Severity: normal The policy for when it is allowed to declare a Pre-Depends is currently split between two different sections in the policy: Section 3.5 says: "You should not specify a Pre-Depends entry for a package before this has been discussed on the debian-devel mailing list and a consensus about doing that has been reached." Section 7.2 says: "Pre-Depends should be used sparingly, preferably only by packages whose premature upgrade or installation would hamper the ability of the system to continue with any upgrade that might be in progress. Pre-Depends are also required if the preinst script depends on the named package. It is best to avoid this situation if possible." While there is a reference in section 3.5 to chapter 7 (and hence indirectly to section 7.2): "The format of the package interrelationship control fields is described in Declaring relationships between packages, Chapter 7." ..., there is no reference in section 7.2 going in the other direction. This means that if you look for the policy about Pre-Depends in section 7.2 (which I find the most likely place) there is no mentioning of the requirement to establish consensus about Pre-Depends on debian-devel, so this requirement is currently easily overlooked. I therefore suggest that the paragraph about Pre-Depends in section 7.2 is amended with a cross-reference to the rule in section 3.5 about the requirement about establishing a consensus on debian-devel. Mattias
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