Re: mawk is a required package but I have replaced it with gawk

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

Dan Jacobson wrote:
> > I was thinking that to have a "valid" debian system, all "required"
> > packages must be installed.
>
> < That's true for essential package, but required != essential.
>
> /usr/share/doc/debian/FAQ/debian-faq.en.txt.gz:
> 6.7. What is a _Required_, _Important_, _Standard_, _Optional_, or _Extra_
> package?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>      Each Debian package is assigned a _priority_ by the distribution
>      maintainers, as an aid to the package management system.  The
>      priorities are:
>
>         * _Required_: packages that are necessary for the proper
>           functioning of the system.
>
>           This includes all tools that are necessary to repair system
>           defects.  You must not remove these packages or your system may
>           become totally broken and you may probably not even be able to
>           use dpkg to put things back.

This is more true for essential packages, and maybe not always
accurate for required packages that are not essential.

> I will file a bug to get essential added to this file. It is mentioned
> in debian-policy but not here.

Rmember that essential is not a priority but a flag. Most required
packages have this flag, but not all of them.