* Grzegorz Niewisiewicz <grzegorz@niewisiewicz.pl>, 2013-06-26, 00:12:
How can I determine the correct version? Can I test it under oldstable and make a dependency on its versions if the package works?Why does it need such a new version of coreutils? (This, on the other hand, might be something worth explaining in the changelog.) This build-dependency makes the package unbuildable on i386, which is stuck with an earlier version of coreutils.I changed the dependency to coreutils from stable (>= 8.13-3.3).Also, why does it need such a new version of bash?Well, you didn't answer my questions. :)
If this is the case, most likely you shouldn't (build-)depend on them at all.
Quoting Lintian: "Packages do not need to depend on essential packages; essential means that they will always be present. The only reason to list an explicit dependency on an essential package is if you need a particular version of that package, in which case the version should be given in the dependency."
-- Jakub Wilk