> I was thinking that to have a "valid" debian system, all "required" > packages must be installed.
< That's true for essential package, but required != essential. /usr/share/doc/debian/FAQ/debian-faq.en.txt.gz: 6.7. What is a _Required_, _Important_, _Standard_, _Optional_, or _Extra_ package? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each Debian package is assigned a _priority_ by the distribution maintainers, as an aid to the package management system. The priorities are: * _Required_: packages that are necessary for the proper functioning of the system. This includes all tools that are necessary to repair system defects. You must not remove these packages or your system may become totally broken and you may probably not even be able to use dpkg to put things back. I will file a bug to get essential added to this file. It is mentioned in debian-policy but not here. Anyway, can't blame some users for getting the impression that if one doesn't accept mawk, their system will be in serious shape, whereas it really should be: if one has no version of awk at all, their system will be in serious shape.