Bug#1144046: define term 'release critical'?

Simon Josefsson <[email protected]> Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:12:42 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.policy
Message-ID	<87ik58hovp.fsf__13061.2307506212$1786972473$gmane$org@josefsson.org>

Sean Whitton <[email protected]> writes:

> Simon Josefsson [16/Aug  1:51pm +02] wrote:
>> Sean Whitton <[email protected]> writes:
>>
>>> Simon Josefsson [16/Aug  1:30pm +02] wrote:
>>>> Sean Whitton <[email protected]> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Well, Policy requirements define what's release critical in general
>>>>
>>>> Where/How?  Adding the term 'release critical' to where the concept is
>>>> defined in Policy is what the bug report is about.
>>>
>>> You quoted the text where Policy requirements are defined.  Basically,
>>> 'must' and 'should'.
>>
>> The text is:
>>
>>    The terms must and must not, and the adjectives required and
>>    prohibited, denote strong requirements. Packages that do not conform
>>    to these requirements will generally not be considered acceptable for
>>    the Debian distribution. These statements correspond to the critical,
>>    grave, and serious bug severities (normally serious). They are
>>    collectively called Policy requirements.
>>
>> It is the third sentence:
>>
>>    These statements correspond to the critical, grave, and serious bug
>>    severities (normally serious)
>>
>> that I believe carry a simple definition of 'release critical'.
>
> How about we just append a parenthetical (the release-critical severities)?

Something like this?  Adding one paranthetical after another looks a bit
weird, so I'm not sure what you meant.

/Simon

0001-Mention-term-release-critical-Closes-1144046.patch (text/x-diff, 1.3 KB)

From 68c63b01e11629b516ecd9c16f8832bbbdea8ac7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Simon Josefsson <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:36:52 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Mention term 'release critical' (Closes: #1144046)

---
 policy/ch-scope.rst | 7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/policy/ch-scope.rst b/policy/ch-scope.rst
index a279c26..3be90a5 100644
--- a/policy/ch-scope.rst
+++ b/policy/ch-scope.rst
@@ -37,9 +37,10 @@ describe the importance of each statement:  [#]_
 * The terms *must* and *must not*, and the adjectives *required* and
   *prohibited*, denote strong requirements. Packages that do not conform
   to these requirements will generally not be considered acceptable for
-  the Debian distribution. These statements correspond to the *critical*,
-  *grave*, and *serious* bug severities (normally serious). They are
-  collectively called *Policy requirements*.
+  the Debian distribution. These statements correspond to the
+  release-critical bug severities *critical*, *grave*, and *serious*
+  (normally serious). They are collectively called *Policy
+  requirements*.  [#]_
 
 * The terms *should* and *should not*, and the adjective *recommended*,
   denote best practices. Non-conformance with these guidelines will
-- 
2.54.0

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