XPost: linux.debian.policy
From: nicolas@debian.org
Source: debian-policy
Followup-For: Bug #1010229
Here is a more formal patch.
Would a review be easyer with a merge request?
From 0a265ca1ae2e51571cb5c19aa620943125c46f73 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicolas Boulenguez
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:04:15 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Improve wording about Provides and versions
Move the footnote near the related sentence.
Mention the restriction to "=" near Provides, as already done for
Built-Using.
https://bugs.debian.org/1010229
---
policy/ch-relationships.rst | 7 ++++---
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/policy/ch-relationships.rst b/policy/ch-relationships.rst
index fb9dae8..4bac4a5 100644
--- a/policy/ch-relationships.rst
+++ b/policy/ch-relationships.rst
@@ -28,8 +28,7 @@ below followed by a version number, in the format described
in
The relations allowed are ``<<``, ``<=``, ``=``, ``>=`` and ``>>`` for
strictly earlier, earlier or equal, exactly equal, later or equal and
-strictly later, respectively. The exception is the Provides field, for
-which only ``=`` is allowed. [#]_
+strictly later, respectively. [#]_
Whitespace may appear at any point in the version specification subject
to the rules in :ref:`s-controlsyntax`, and must appear
@@ -450,7 +449,9 @@ they can say:
and the ``bar-plus`` package will now also satisfy the dependency for
the ``foo`` package.
-A ``Provides`` field may contain version numbers, and such a version number
+A ``Provides`` field may contain version numbers,
+but only with the "exactly equal" ("=") relation.
+Such a version number
will be considered when considering a dependency on or conflict with the
virtual package name. For example, given the following packages:
--
2.47.3
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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