• [$] Debian's AWKward essential set

    From LWN.net@86:200/23 to All on Thu May 8 06:40:08 2025

    The Debian project has the concept of essential
    packages, which provide the bare minimum functionality considered
    absolutely necessary (or "essential") for a system to
    function. Packages tagged as essential, and the packages that are
    required by the set of essential packages, are always installed as
    part of a Debian system. However, Debian's packaging rules do not
    require developers to explicitly declare dependencies on that set of
    packages (the essential set) but they can simply rely on the fact that those will always be present. That means that changing the essential set, as
    the project may wish to do occasionally, is more complicated than it
    should be. This came to light recently when a Debian developer asked
    what might be required to remove mawk to slim down
    the project's container images.

    https://lwn.net/Articles/1019898/
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