Bug#758234: debian-policy: allow packages to depend on packages of lower priority

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Ansgar Burchardt wrote:

> I suggest to drop the following paragraph from 2.5:
>
>   Packages must not depend on packages with lower priority values
>   (excluding build-time dependencies). In order to ensure this, the
>   priorities of one or more packages may need to be adjusted.
>
> This requirement is not fulfilled by many packages and it doesn't seem
> to break anything.

In the case of 'Priority: required', I find the explicit tracking very
helpful.  In other cases, I agree that it is less so.

IIRC then debootstrap, cdebootstrap, and d-i were the main users of
the Priority field, so they'd be the packages to look at to see the
fallout from this change.

Is there some way to get a file from the archive that lists, e.g.,
'Priority: standard' packages and all the packages they depend on
(making some appropriate choice in the case of a|b dependencies)?  If
so, then that should be documented in policy and this paragraph
removed IMHO.

Thanks,
Jonathan