Bug#759260: removal of the Extra priority.

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Charles Plessy wrote:

> practically speaking, how do you or others use the Optional priority to check
> that a package is not directly or transitively conflicting with another package ?
[...]
> Can you give concrete examples where the Extra priority has been instrumental
> for you as a user or a developer, in a way that has no practical alternative ?

Imagine yourself to be a sysadmin for a multiuser installation, for
example at a university.

Someone asks you to install a package.

If the package has priority "optional", you can just install it.  The
vast majority of the time, it won't conflict with anything else you
have installed.  Yes, there are exceptions, but for this use case,
them being pretty rare is sufficient.

If the package has priority "extra", you can look around for an
alternative with priority "optional", install that instead, and tell
the user what you've done.

If there is no adequate package with priority "optional" or better in
Debian, you can file a bug.

I believe this is concrete.  Whether it's worth the packager effort is
another question, but this is a real use case and it is something
people do.

Hoping that clarifies,
Jonathan