Hi folks, Currently the e2fsprogs package is marked Essential: yes in the archive. Is this a historical holdover? I believe e2fsprogs used to ship /sbin/fsck, but since 2009 (i.e., util-linux (>= 2.15~rc1-1), which e2fsprogs has a pre-depends on), this has been provided by util-linux instead. The remaining programs provided by e2fsprogs are all specific to the ext* family of filesystems, so I don't think meet the definition of Essential any longer - their presence is certainly important if you have an ext[234] filesystem, but while this is the default, you can have systems that don't use ext* at all, which makes e2fsprogs no more essential in nature than the other per-filesystem fsck tools. Now that the transition to util-linux is done in a stable release, is it time for us to drop the Essential: yes flag from e2fsprogs? This will benefit those targetting embedded systems that don't use ext, where the package will be dead weight; the risk of any packages assuming availability of these e2fs-specific interfaces without a dependency is quite low; and we're at the right point in the cycle to make changes to the Essential set, where we have time to deal with any unexpected fallout. Thoughts? Thanks, -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
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