On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 04:51:11PM +0100, Helmut Grohne wrote: > Since dpkg will not prevent upgrading of other packages while an > ``essential`` package is in an unconfigured state, all ``essential`` > packages must supply all of their core functionality even when > -unconfigured. If the package cannot satisfy this requirement it must not > +unconfigured after being configured at least once. > +If the package cannot satisfy this requirement it must not > be tagged as essential, and any packages depending on this package must > instead have explicit dependency fields as appropriate.
I think that has always been the spirit of Debian Policy, which is also consistent with the behaviour of current bootstrap tools. (Note that it's a paragraph which is talking about upgrades, and related to the fact that dpkg "unconfigures" a package before upgrading it). Thanks.
