On Sun, 25 Jun 2017 15:54:00 -0700 Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> wrote: > Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar@debian.org> writes: > > > 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.) > Hi, Thanks for this draft. > Given KiBi's reply, I'll leave 2 out for now. > Seems reasonable to me. :) > [...] > > Note that this also says that no two packages that both have a priority of > standard or higher may conflict. I think that's a logical consequence of > the use of priorities, and didn't want to lose that completely when that > requirement was dropped from optional. > Agreed. I second the change below. Please notify me/the lintian maintainers if/when it is merged, so we can update the relevant checks in lintian. > diff --git a/policy.xml b/policy.xml > index ace6a3b..be458cd 100644 > --- a/policy.xml > +++ b/policy.xml > @@ -837,11 +837,33 @@ > <title>Priorities</title> > > <para> > - Each package should have a <emphasis>priority</emphasis> value, > - which is included in the package's <emphasis>control > - record</emphasis> (see <xref linkend="s-f-Priority"/>). This > - information is used by the Debian package management tools to > - separate high-priority packages from less-important packages. > + Each package must have a <emphasis>priority</emphasis> value, > + which is set in the metadata for the Debian archive and is also > + included in the package's control files (see <xref > + linkend="s-f-Priority"/>). This information is used to control > + which packages are included in standard or minimal Debian > + installations. > + </para> > + <para> > + Most Debian packages will have a priority of > + <literal>optional</literal>. Priority levels other than > + <literal>optional</literal> are only used for packages that should > + be included by default in a standard installation of Debian. > + </para> > + <para> > + The priority of a package is determined solely by the > + functionality it provides directly to the user. The priority of a > + package should not be increased merely because another > + higher-priority package depends on it; instead, the tools used to > + construct Debian installations will correctly handle package > + dependencies. In particular, this means that C-like libraries > + will almost never have a priority above > + <literal>optional</literal>, since they do not provide > + functionality directly to users. However, as an exception, the > + maintainers of Debian installers may request an increase of the > + priority of a package to resolve installation issues and ensure > + that the correct set of packages is included in a standard or > + minimal install. > </para> > <para> > The following <emphasis>priority levels</emphasis> are recognized > @@ -896,19 +922,22 @@ > installed by default if the user doesn't select anything > else. It doesn't include many large applications. > </para> > + <para> > + No two packages that both have a priority of > + <literal>standard</literal> or higher may conflict with each > + other. > + </para> > </listitem> > </varlistentry> > <varlistentry> > <term><literal>optional</literal></term> > <listitem> > <para> > - (In a sense everything that isn't required is optional, but > - that's not what is meant here.) This is all the software > - that you might reasonably want to install if you didn't know > - what it was and don't have specialized requirements. This > - is a much larger system and includes the X Window System, a > - full TeX distribution, and many applications. Note that > - optional packages should not conflict with each other. > + This is the default priority for the majority of the > + archive. Unless a package should be installed by default on > + standard Debian systems, it should have a priority of > + <literal>optional</literal>. Packages with a priority of > + <literal>optional</literal> may conflict with each other. > </para> > </listitem> > </varlistentry> > @@ -916,22 +945,21 @@ > <term><literal>extra</literal></term> > <listitem> > <para> > - This contains all packages that conflict with others with > - required, important, standard or optional priorities, or are > - only likely to be useful if you already know what they are > - or have specialized requirements (such as packages > - containing only detached debugging symbols). > + <emphasis>This priority is deprecated.</emphasis> Use the > + <literal>optional</literal> priority instead. > + </para> > + <para> > + The <literal>extra</literal> priority was previously used > + for packages that conflicted with other packages and > + packages that were only likely to be useful to people with > + specialized requirements. However, this distinction was > + somewhat arbitrary, not consistently followed, and not > + useful enough to warrant the maintenance effort. > </para> > </listitem> > </varlistentry> > </variablelist> > - <para> > - 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. > - </para> > </section> > - > </chapter> > > <chapter id="ch-binary">
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