Package: apt Version: 0.7.25.3 It seems apt-get installs new essential packages by default.
This *is* a bug. Please let me explain why: The purpose and meaning of the essential flag is, and it has always been "should not be removed", *not* "should be installed by default". Those two things might seem very similar, but they are not! The following example comes from a very old discussion about this: Consider for example a forked "e2fsprogs" package having a different name, say "e2fsprogs-foo". This package would Conflicts and Replaces the ordinary "e2fsprogs" package. It would be of extra priority, as it conflicts with a required package. However, it would be also "Essential: yes". That way, installing "e2fsprogs-foo" would remove e2fsprogs automatically, but the user would have to use "dpkg --force-remove-essential" to remove "e2fsprogs-foo" in exactly the same way it would have to do that to remove "e2fsprogs". In any of these two cases, the job of dpkg (which should be also the job of apt-get) is to prevent the user from uninstalling an essential package accidentally, but clearly *not* to ensure that "all essential packages are installed" as "e2fsprogs" and "e2fsprogs-foo" conflict at each other and may not be installed at the same time. By installing essential packages by default, apt-get is treating the essential flag as if it were one more priority over "required". That's not the case, essential is just a flag to prevent accidental remove, not a priority. Note 1: To my amazement, Bug#177952 asks for an option to disable the current behaviour and it's marked "wontfix"! While such option would certainly be a step in the right direction, that would not change the fact that the default behaviour is a bug! Note 2: Whenever new essential packages are added to the system, old essential packages depend on them (example: the diff->diffutils transition from lenny to squeeze), so the ability to add packages to the set of essential packages should not be considered as a good reason to keep the current behaviour. Thanks. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
