Bug#235525: debian-policy: [PROPOSAL] Relax priority relations between packages (Policy 2.5)
* Anthony Towns (aj@azure.humbug.org.au) [040302 18:40]:
> On Tue, Mar 02, 2004 at 03:36:22PM +0100, Marc Haber wrote:
> > And the way we
> > handle libraries is indeed broken as well, because we require them to
> > be manually uninstalled. If they could be priority optional, aptitude
> > could automagically remove them with the packages that need them.
> Why can't it do that with it at the current priority? There's no
> more reason to keep unavailable, unneeded >=standard libraries than
> <=optional ones.
I don't know if you've every used a tool like dselect or aptitude. But
if you had, you might have noticed that packages of certain priorities
are automatically added to the to-be-installed packages, even if there
is no explicit dependency on them. So, for example, if exim4-config is
important, then it is always installed, except if some package
conflicts with it. So, if another mta is installed, and exim4-config
does not conflict with it, it is installed though it's not use at all
for the user. (And the very same is also valid with a library where
there's no programm using it.)
So, the proposed change would not only allow to drop the priority of
exim4-config, but also of some other libaries that are only needed for
certain important packages, where the important package could be
substituted with some other package with less depencies.
And, Anthony, please let me repeat my question: Why do we _need_ the
current policy statemnt? Is there any reason for it, beside that you
dislike exim4, the way it is packaged or its maintainers?
Cheers,
Andi
--
http://home.arcor.de/andreas-barth/
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