Re: POSIX shell; bash ash pdksh & /bin/sh
> bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu (Buddha Buck) wrote on 02.08.98 in <"otsK3B.A.zLF.QTjx1"@murphy>:
>
> > One problem I see is a poor definition of essential packages. The
> > distinction between required and essential packages isn't clear from
> > the policy manual. "Required" packages are defined as "necessary for
> > the proper functioning of the system." Removing a required package may
> > break the system. "Essential" packages are defined as "packages that
> > are *essential* for a system". By these definitions, how do required
> > and essential packages differ?
>
> My take is that required packages are required for the system as a whole,
> essential packages are required for the installation subsystem (dpkg and
> friends).
>
> That is, if you remove required packages, your system is broken until you
> reinstall them. But if you remove essential packages, your system will
> need manual surgery - dpkg will be broken, and "just reinstall them" won't
> work.
That would have been my take as well, until I read the policy manual
(which I've quoted extensively in another message). According to it,
removal of "required" packages may trash your system and break dpkg and
friends. Nothing is said about the removal of essential packages
(except it is hard to do). All that is really said about essential
packages is that they are "essential", other packages don't have to
declare dependencies on them, they are hard to remove, shared libraries
can't be essential, and discuss making a package on debian-devel first.
>
> MfG Kai
>
--
Buddha Buck bmbuck@acsu.buffalo.edu
"Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength of our
liberty depends upon the chaos and cacaphony of the unfettered speech
the First Amendment protects." -- A.L.A. v. U.S. Dept. of Justice
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