Hello world,
On priorities, amongst other things, policy says:
`required'
`required' packages are necessary for the proper functioning of
the system. You must not remove these packages or your system
may become totally broken and you may not even be able to use
`dpkg' to put things back. Systems with only the `required'
packages are probably unusable, but they do have enough
functionality to allow the sysadmin to boot and install more
software.
My understanding of this is that the "required" priority is essentially
equivalent to "essential: yes" and should be used only for packages which
*MUST* be on every system for dpkg to work and other packages to be able
to be installed. I don't think this is the case atm.
The following packages are marked priority: required, but not essential:
yes.
adduser libpam-modules mbr
ae libpam-runtime modutils
console-data libpam0g passwd
console-tools libreadline4 perl-5.005-base
console-tools-libs libstdc++2.10 procps
ldso libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 setserial
libc6 makedev slang1
libncurses5 mawk sysklogd
Of them,
libc6, libncurses5, libpam*, libreadline*, libstdc++*, slang1
are libraries, and can't be marked essential, and:
mawk, perl-5.005-base
are depended on by other packages, but have compatible alternatives so may
be replaced, so shouldn't be marked essential.
Of those remaining,
console-data/console-tools/console-tools-libs
ldso, makedev, procps
look like good candidates for essential: yes markers, at least for the
architectures that actually use them.
OTOH,
adduser, ae, mbr, modutils, passwd, setserial, sysklogd
are all probably downgradable to either "important" (your system can be
recovered without these packages, but you're insane if you don't have
them), or lower.
This is not to say they shouldn't still always be installed by default,
of course.
I've filed a bug against ae to this effect already, btw.
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.
``We reject: kings, presidents, and voting.
We believe in: rough consensus and working code.''
-- Dave Clark
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