Bug#50832: AMENDMENT] Clarify meaning of Essential: yes
close 50832
reopen 50832
retitle 50832 [AMENDMENT 1999/11/23] Clarify meaning of Essential: yes
thanks
This proposal has been seconded by Raul and Espy, which gives it enough
seconds to be an amendment.
(I've changed the text of the amendment to, hopefully, be a little
clearer. I trust it hasn't changed enough to disgust either of you?)
Two weeks seems like a suitable discussion period (ie, ending around
the 7th of December).
To clarify, the rationale for this is that any other behaviour will cause
problems, but they might not be obvious to someone who hasn't thought
the issue through properly, and whose testing didn't happen to show it up.
Wichert, Chris, did this or my previous mail answer your objections,
or...?
---
2.3.7. Essential packages
-------------------------
Some packages are tagged `essential'. (They have `Essential: yes' in
their package control record.) This flag is used for packages that are
_essential_ for a system.
Since these packages can not easily be removed (you'll have to specify
an extra _force option_ to `dpkg') this flag must only be used where
absolutely necessary. A shared library package must not be tagged
_essential_--the dependencies will prevent its premature removal, and
we need to be able to remove it when it has been superseded.
+ Since dpkg will upgrade other packages while an _essential_
+ package is in an unconfigured state, all _essential_ packages must
+ supply all their core functionality even when unconfigured. If the
+ package cannot satisfy this requirement it should not be tagged
+ as essential, and any packages depending on this packages should
+ instead have explicit Depends: or Pre-Depends: fields as appropriate.
You must not tag any packages `essential' before this has been
discussed on the `debian-devel' mailing and a consensus about doing
that has been reached.
---
Cheers,
aj
--
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. PGP encrypted mail preferred.
``The thing is: trying to be too generic is EVIL. It's stupid, it
results in slower code, and it results in more bugs.''
-- Linus Torvalds
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