Bug#71621: acknowledged by developer (Bug#112828: fixed in debian-policy 3.5.7.0)

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Sat, Aug 31, 2002 at 05:48:20AM -0500, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> This is an automatic notification regarding your Bug report
> #71621: No policy on calling update-alternatives (was Re: update-alternatives),
> which was filed against the debian-policy package.
[...]
>    * Clarifying manual pages is not a policy issue.           closes: Bug#112828

(#71621 and #112828 were merged.)

I think #71621 is an interoperability and consistency issue, and thus
suitable for policy. For instance, packages that remove and reinstall
alternatives on upgrade (at least used to) break local configuration in
the form of manually set alternatives, and I believe using
update-alternatives in this way could cause alternatives to be sensitive
to upgrade ordering when multiple packages providing the same
alternative are upgraded in the same run. This feels like exactly the
kind of thing that policy ought to mention.

If it is nevertheless determined that this bug is suitable for a best
practices document of some kind rather than the policy manual then I'd
appreciate it if it could be left open in a holding area somewhere so
that I don't have to file it again if and when the new document omits
it.

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]