Perl Policy: Change perlapi provides to use an ABI version

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

diff --git a/perl-policy.sgml b/perl-policy.sgml
index 1d26df7c40ab75eaa6cb2a1cf4e768c116aa7d0f..58c33328fb8eec1aea378294862c3df1cc79cc5c 100644 (file)
--- a/perl-policy.sgml
+++ b/perl-policy.sgml
@@ -89,8 +89,11 @@
        </p>
        <p>
          The <package>perl-base</package> package must provide
-         <package>perlapi-<var>version</var></package> for all released
-         versions it is compatible with.
+         <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> for all released
+         package versions it is compatible with. The choice of
+         <var>abiname</var> is arbitrary, but if it differs from
+         <tt>$Config{version}</tt>, it must be specified in
+         <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt>.
        </p>
       </sect>
 
@@ -103,18 +106,18 @@
          the binary and a basic set of modules.
        </p>
        <p>
-         As Perl is currently used by such things as
-         <file>update-alternatives</file> and some package maintainer
-         scripts, it must be priority <em>required</em> and marked as
-         <em>essential</em>.
+         As Perl has been part of the essential set for some time and is
+         used without dependencies by such things as package maintainer
+         scripts, <package>perl-base</package> must be
+         priority <em>required</em> and marked as <em>essential</em>.
        </p>
        <p>
          Note that the <package>perl-base</package> package is intended
          only to provide for exceptional circumstances and the contents
-         may change.  In general only packages which form part of the
-         base system should declare a dependency on
-         <package>perl-base</package> rather than
-         <package>perl</package>.
+         may change.  In general, only packages which form part of the
+         base system should use only the facilities
+         of <package>perl-base</package> rather than declaring a
+         dependency on <package>perl</package>.
        </p>
       </sect>
 
@@ -348,8 +351,9 @@ $(MAKE) install PREFIX=$(CURDIR)/debian/&lt;tmp&gt;/usr
            a minimum version of the <package>perl</package> package
            used to build the module, and must additionally depend on
            the expansion of
-           <package>perlapi-$Config{version}</package> using
-           the <tt>Config</tt> module.
+           <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package> using
+           the <tt>Config</tt> module. If <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt>
+           is empty or not set, <tt>$Config{version}</tt> must be used.
          </p>
        </sect1>