Bug#452393: [PROPOSAL] clarify overstep between "required" and "important" priorities

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Charles Plessy wrote:
> Le Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 01:20:19PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder a écrit :
>> Charles Plessy wrote:

>>>                                                                 deprecating
>>> either the required or important priority would not render packages buggy just
>>> for that fact.
>
>> Are you referring to the override file taking precedence, or something
>> else?
>
> Yes, the override.

Ok.  If we get rid of the "required" priority, archive management
tools (dak, reprepro, etc) could learn to compute it.  Downstream
consumers would not have to suffer from the lack.

debootstrap does the following:

	required="$(get_debs Priority: required)"

	if doing_variant - || doing_variant fakechroot; then
		#required="$required $(get_debs Priority: important)"
		#  ^^ should be getting debconf here somehow maybe
		base="$(get_debs Priority: important)"
	elif doing_variant buildd || doing_variant scratchbox; then
		base="apt build-essential"
	elif doing_variant minbase; then
		base="apt"
	fi

	if doing_variant fakechroot; then
		# ldd.fake needs binutils
		required="$required binutils"
	fi

I am guessing there are a few scripts like this (CD-related and
bootstrapping tools), so the kind of transition you suggest is
probably the simplest possible.

It still sounds like work, so let's abandon that part of the proposal.
Maybe we can prepare for it with the following, though?

Thanks,
Jonathan

diff --git i/policy.sgml w/policy.sgml
index 52dbb26a..544308f8 100644
--- i/policy.sgml
+++ w/policy.sgml
@@ -757,16 +757,11 @@
 	  <taglist>
 	    <tag><tt>required</tt></tag>
 	    <item>
-		Packages which are necessary for the proper
-		functioning of the system (usually, this means that
-		dpkg functionality depends on these packages).
-		Removing a <tt>required</tt> package may cause your
-		system to become totally broken and you may not even
-		be able to use <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to put things back,
-		so only do so if you know what you are doing.  Systems
-		with only the <tt>required</tt> packages are probably
-		unusable, but they do have enough functionality to
-		allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
+		Packages tagged <tt>Essential: yes</tt> and their
+		dependencies.
+		Systems with only the <tt>required</tt> packages are
+		probably unusable, but they do have enough functionality
+		to allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
 	    </item>
 	    <tag><tt>important</tt></tag>
 	    <item>