Package: debian-policy Version: 4.6.2.0 Severity: wishlist
Hello. This is an attempt to put the basis for fixing this bug: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=837060 As an example, packages tzdata, mount or e2fsprogs are not build-essential and afaik have not been for a long time, but there are still people who believe that they are build-essential for the mere fact that they are priority:required. Therefore I think a clarification would be useful to clear those kind of misconceptions. Proposed text, to be added after the paragraph which defines build essential based on the Hello World example: ---------------------------------------------------------- From this definition it follows that packages of required priority are not necessarily build essential, as it is possible for some them not to be needed at all to compile, link and put in a Debian package a Hello World program written in C or C++. ---------------------------------------------------------- Next step would be to add a paragraph saying tools like debootstrap when used to create chroots for building (i.e. "buildd" profile in deboostrap) should try to keep the list of installed packages as minimal as possible, as far as doing so does not become disruptive (for example, apt is technically not build-essential but it is required to install the build-dependencies). Thanks.
