Bug#477990: Remove non-conflicting requirement in optional; relax dependencies

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Fri, 25 Apr 2008, Don Armstrong wrote:

> Package: debian-policy
> Version: 3.7.3.0
> Severity: wishlist
> User: debian-policy@packages.debian.org
> UserTags: discussion
> Tag: patch
>
> The requirement of optional packages not to conflict with eachother
> and not to depend on essential packages are outdated, and appear to
> stem from a time where someone would actually want to install all of
> optional.
>
> As such, I suggest that this requirement be removed, and only the
> meaning of optional "packages that you'd want without specialized
> requirements" kept. The attached patch as an initiation point for
> discussion acheives this.

While it made possible to install all of optional, the idea of this
policy was never that someone install all of optional. The idea was
that when browsing the package list, a user could actually choose
*whatever* set (small or big) of optional packages he/she wishes
without fear of conflicts.

I consider this to be a good property that we should keep (or maybe
achieve, in fact, I remember having posted an "override file for the
override file" at least once in the past). Therefore I object to this
proposal entirely.