Bug#1010229: cosmetic: version restrictions are limited to = for Provides but also Built-Using

>From 0a265ca1ae2e51571cb5c19aa620943125c46f73 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nicolas Boulenguez <[email protected]>
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: