Clarify Perl Policy about essentialness of perl-base

Clarify in the Perl Policy that perl-base is essential, not perl, and
don't imply packages need to depend on perl-base.  (Closes: #576594)

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 00bac97d706f0c7ea741f6d880bc938ad8e931c3..7e7fb00ce4c02e5d74ee27e8264bf18f02f54223 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ debian-policy (3.8.5.0) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     was also somewhat outdated.  (Closes: #555009, see #584141)
   * Remove obsolete footnote sentence saying that dpkg-statoverride is a
     new feature and not well-known.  (Closes: #563425)
+  * Clarify in the Perl Policy that perl-base is essential, not perl, and
+    don't imply packages need to depend on perl-base.  (Closes: #576594)
 
  -- Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>  Mon, 31 May 2010 20:00:28 +0200
 

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>