Bug#491985: debian-policy: Should Policy mandate -dbg binary packages to be `Priority: extra'?

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 07:11:23PM -0700, Russ Allbery a écrit :
> 
> Policy doesn't really set requirements around priority except for a few
> specific cases, and I don't really expect that to change, since that's the
> province of ftp-master.

Hi Russ,

I am a bit uncomfortable with the fact that there are two different
places where specific rules about priorities are set. I do not
understand why something that is important enough to be overriden in the
Debian FTP archive is not important enough to be specified by the Policy
(although I understand the concept of territories and not competing for
others's prerogatives).

On the other hand, there were already many discussions underlining that
the distinction between optional and extra packages is somewhat
dysfunctional, so I guess that the most efficient way to solve the
problem is a global reform of optional and extra priorities.

I nitpick a bit on this because I think that it is really a time sink.
For instance, I recently had to object that `optional' was an acceptable
priority for a scientific package, althoug this package has a much
narrower audience than other optional packages such as openoffice.
Having a clear policy that can cope the differences of people's gut
feelings would save us some time, I think.

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Debian Med packaging team,
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan