On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 05:36:40PM +0000, Clint Adams wrote: > Due to potential confusion about sensible-utils being only de facto > Essential and whether or not packages should be declaring dependencies > on it. Something like this footnote may be helpful.
With the current dependencies, sensible-utils isn't de facto Essential at all. On upgrade from lenny, there's a significant possibility that the new debianutils will be unpacked before the new sensible-utils, at which point anything expecting sensible-(browser|editor|pager) to be on the system will be broken, regardless of whether that package is in an 'installed' state at the time. Likewise, at any future point dpkg/apt is allowed to remove sensible-utils entirely from the system (perhaps temporarily as part of a pessimal upgrade), or remove its own dependencies (if any in the future) rendering it inoperable, with no indication that this will break other packages relying on sensible-foo. Only packages which are Pre-Depends of Essential packages are de facto Essential in any meaningful sense, not those which are Depends. > diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml > index bcbaacb..57c5386 100644 > --- a/policy.sgml > +++ b/policy.sgml > @@ -7953,11 +7953,13 @@ done > EDITOR or PAGER variables, that program may be configured to > use <file>/usr/bin/sensible-editor</file> and > <file>/usr/bin/sensible-pager</file> as the editor or pager > - program respectively. These are two scripts provided in the > - Debian base system that check the EDITOR and PAGER variables > - and launch the appropriate program, and fall back to > - <file>/usr/bin/editor</file> and <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> if the > - variable is not set. > + program respectively.<footnote>A package making unconditional > + use of one of these programs must declare a dependency on > + the package containing them.</footnote> These are two scripts > + provided in the Debian base system that check the EDITOR and > + PAGER variables and launch the appropriate program, and fall > + back to <file>/usr/bin/editor</file> and > + <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> if the variable is not set. > </p> > > <p> Rather than a footnote, I would suggest simply replacing "These are two scripts provided in the Debian base system" with "These are two scripts provided in the <package>sensible-utils</package> package". -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slanga...@ubuntu.com vor...@debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
