Clarify Perl Policy about essentialness of perl-base

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

diff --git a/perl-policy.sgml b/perl-policy.sgml
index 1d26df7c40ab75eaa6cb2a1cf4e768c116aa7d0f..ef1fbe64c479bb31637e785d27d4ede211345c95 100644 (file)
--- a/perl-policy.sgml
+++ b/perl-policy.sgml
@@ -103,18 +103,18 @@
          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>