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Bug#872587: Document the Protected field



On Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 01:29:50PM +0200, Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
> > The documentation from deb-control(5) is:
> >
> > Protected: yes|no
> >     This field is usually only needed when the answer is yes.  It denotes
> >     a package that is required mostly for proper booting of the system or
> >     used for custom system-local meta-packages.  dpkg(1) or any other
> >     installation tool will not allow a Protected package to be removed (at
> >     least not without using one of the force options).
> >
> > It's probably also worth noting the parenthetical comment in the
> > documentation of Essential:
> >
> > Essential: yes|no
> >     This field is usually only needed when the answer is yes.  It denotes
> >     a package that is required for the packaging system, for proper
> >     operation of the system in general or during boot (although the latter
> >     should be converted to Protected field instead).  dpkg(1) or any other
> >     installation tool will not allow an Essential package to be removed
> >     (at least not without using one of the force options).
> 
> I'm still not sure that I inderstand the difference between those two.
> They seem to accomplish the same thing. Did I miss something?
Per my understanding which may be flawed: 

"Essential: yes" are always installed. Tools and dependencies assume they
are installed.  Bootstrapping tools install them implicitly. Package
management tools refuse to remove them.

"Protected: yes" are nothing like that. Package management tools refuse to
remove them and that's all.

-- 
WBR, wRAR

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