Bug#645451: apt should have priority required, like all other essential packages

[Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>]

On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 08:56:37PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Josh Triplett wrote:
> > All packages with "Essential: yes" have "Priority: required", except for
> > apt.  Seems like apt should have "Priority: required" as well.
> 
> apt is not essential.
> 
> 	$ cupt show apt | grep Essential
> 	$

That's fascinating.  Aptitude's screen-oriented interface shows it as
essential, and aptitude search '?essential' shows apt.  I got to this
point through the following search:

~$ aptitude search '?essential ?not(?priority(required))'
i A apt                             - APT's commandline package manager

However, "aptitude show apt" does not show it as essential, whereas
"aptitude show dpkg" does show that as essential.  "apt-cache show apt"
and "apt-cache show dpkg" concur with the corresponding "aptitude show"
commands.

So, something in aptitude seems to magically treat apt as essential.  A
bug already exists on aptitude: http://bugs.debian.org/548505 .
Apparently aptitude maps ?essential to apt's flags Essential and
Important, and apt internally sets the Important flag for apt.  The
Important flag appears nowhere else, and I haven't found any
documentation about it other than the mentions in that bug and a few
other bugs.

Sorry for the confusion.  Though I'll still stand by the request in the
original report, and add to that the suggestion apt should probably
become essential, rather than just the internal concept of "Important",
to make that concept more visible.

- Josh Triplett