<varlistentry>
<term>priority 500</term>
-<listitem><simpara>to the versions that are not installed and do not belong to the target release.</simpara></listitem>
+<listitem><simpara>to the versions that do not belong to the target release.</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>priority 990</term>
-<listitem><simpara>to the versions that are not installed and belong to the target release.</simpara></listitem>
+<listitem><simpara>to the versions that belong to the target release.</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
+
+The highest of those priorities whose description matches the version is assigned to the
+version.
</para>
<para>If the target release has not been specified then APT simply assigns
<term>P < 0</term>
<listitem><simpara>prevents the version from being installed</simpara></listitem>
</varlistentry>
+<varlistentry>
+<term>P = 0</term>
+<listitem><simpara>has undefined behaviour, do not use it.</simpara></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
-<para>If any specific-form records match an available package version then the
-first such record determines the priority of the package version.
-Failing that,
-if any general-form records match an available package version then the
-first such record determines the priority of the package version.</para>
+<para>
+The first specific-form record matching an available package version determines
+the priority of the package version.
+Failing that, the priority of the package is defined as the maximum of all
+priorities defined by generic-form records matching the version.
+Records defined using patterns in the Pin field other than "*" are treated like
+specific-form records.
+</para>
<para>For example, suppose the APT preferences file contains the three
records presented earlier:</para>