Packages marked "Essential: yes" have to be operational before they are configured, and packages need not (and should not) depend on them, in the same was as they needn't and shouldn't to build-depend on build-essential packages such as gcc and make. Essential packages are also the only ones which can be relied on to be working in postrm:purge.
The priority system exists to help define dependencies .. packages cannot depend on other packages with a lower priority. Policy indicates that "Priority: required" packages are thus marked because they are (mostly) needed by dpkg, which seems like a fine criteria. I'm including the context diff between essential packages and required ones. Since essential implies required, why isn't there simply another priority class, instead of a separate "Essential" field?? There is also the independent concept of "base system", and I don't understand how that fits in with either of the above. -- Clear skies, Justin --- pkgs-essential 2005-11-07 15:32:12.000000000 -0500 +++ pkgs-required 2005-11-07 15:31:52.000000000 -0500 @@ -3,20 +3,58 @@ bash bsdutils coreutils +debconf +debconf-i18n debianutils diff dpkg +dselect +e2fslibs e2fsprogs findutils +gcc-4.0-base grep gzip hostname +initscripts +libacl1 +libattr1 +libblkid1 +libc6 +libcap1 +libcomerr2 +libdb3 +libdb4.3 +libgcc1 +liblocale-gettext-perl +libncurses5 +libnewt0.51 +libpam-modules +libpam-runtime +libpam0g +libselinux1 +libsepol1 +libslang2 +libss2 +libstdc++6 +libtext-charwidth-perl +libtext-iconv-perl +libtext-wrapi18n-perl +libuuid1 login +lsb-base +makedev +mawk mount ncurses-base ncurses-bin +passwd perl-base +procps sed +slang1a-utf8 +sysv-rc sysvinit tar util-linux +zlib1g -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
