[AMENDMENT 15/09/2003] Move documentation of behavior of ancient dpkg in 6.6 to a...

[debian/debian-policy.git] / policy.sgml

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 931d89c8354f78eb247ac38854e6f1fe51ed35ee..e4f59f04c63d469c83743f1de191eae598454410 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -3648,10 +3648,18 @@ Package: libc6
 
        <p>
          If there is no most recently configured version
-         <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will pass a null argument; older versions
-         of dpkg may pass <tt>&lt;unknown&gt;</tt> (including the
-         angle brackets) in this case.  Even older ones do not pass a
-         second argument at all, under any circumstances.
+         <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will pass a null argument.
+         <footnote>
+           <p>
+             Historical note: Truly ancient (pre-1997) versions of
+             <prgn>dpkg</prgn> passed <tt>&lt;unknown&gt;</tt>
+             (including the angle brackets) in this case.  Even older
+             ones did not pass a second argument at all, under any
+             circumstance.  Note that upgrades using such an old dpkg
+             version are unlikely to work for other reasons, even if
+             this old argument behavior is handled by your postinst script.
+           </p>
+         </footnote>     
        </p>
       </sect>