forcemerge 177952 574729 thanks On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 04:27:14PM +0100, Santiago Vila wrote: > 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: It is not, read Policy section 3.8:
"Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality that MUST be available and usable on the system at all times [...] Packages may assume that functionality provided by essential packages is always available without declaring explicit dependencies" If apt were not installing them, those packages would not be available on the system (1st part) and packages could not assume that they are available (2nd part). Thus, not installing all essential packages would violate the Policy and may result in a broken system. > 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! As this bug does not contain any real different problem description, and that other bug is similar, I will merge them. -- Julian Andres Klode - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/.
pgpooUfx3SEoF.pgp
Description: PGP signature
