Package: debian-policy Version: 3.9.1.0 Severity: wishlist Policy currently doesn't directly document the default choice of the first-listed alternative of a set of dependencies, which came up in the discussion of Bug #587279. I believe Policy should state that, if none of the alternative dependencies are currently installed, the first listed alternative should be considered the default package to install to resolve the dependency.
We probably have to be careful how we word this to provide wiggle room for package managers who may prefer to install the dependency that requires the fewest additional packages be installed (a heuristic that will often do the right thing when the alternatives are for different desktop environments, for instance). -- System Information: Debian Release: squeeze/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash debian-policy depends on no packages. debian-policy recommends no packages. Versions of packages debian-policy suggests: ii doc-base 0.9.5 utilities to manage online documen -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
