Bug#646166: § 2.2.1: clarify why "must not require" includes Recommends

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 09:45:10PM +0200, David Paleino a écrit :
> 
> Automatic installation of Recommends is a per-system configuration option, and
> shouldn't be assumed in Policy IMHO.
> 
> I suggest to drop "Recommends" from that sentence or, if we want to make sure
> no non-main packages get pulled in, maybe that "require" should be changed to
> something else ("cause the installation of"? I don't particularly like this
> though).

Hello David,

it has been a release goal since Lenny that ‘packages in main should be able to
satisfy all recommend relations in main’ (http://release.debian.org/lenny/goals.txt),
so the Policy is in line with the current practice.  If you found a package that
recommends packages out of main, it is a release critical bug.

This said, the wording may be improved.  For instance, extending your
suggestion, ‘require a package’ could be changed to ‘cause the installation of
a program’.  That would provide grounds for deciding that a wrapper package,
that could be depended on or recommended, should be placed outside of main.

Have a nice week-end,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan