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

[Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar@debian.org>]

Hi,

Russ Allbery writes:
> ftp-master folks, we're discussing eliminating the requirement that
> packages only depend on other packages with the same or higher priority
> (so important packages would be able to depend on optional packages), and
> deprecating the extra priority entirely (so everything at extra priority
> would end up being optional over time).  This also means eliminating the
> requirement that no two packages at optional priority conflict with each
> other.

I discussed this a bit on IRC with the other ftp-masters and we came to
this summary:

0) We would like to drop the requirement for packages to not depend on
   packages of lower priority: it is better to declare only what we
   actually want included in the installation (that is at priority >=
   standard) rather than also the dependency closure.

1) We agree that the 'extra' priority can be dropped.

2) We wonder if the 'standard' priority can also be dropped: as far as
   we know, it is used only by the "standard" task and it might make
   sense to treat it the same as other tasks.
   (Depending on what works better for the installer team.)

I've Cc'ed -boot@ as this policy change affects them (I don't think they
have to read all of the way too long bug history though).

Ansgar