Detection of native packages
Hi,
Detecting native binary packages [1] does not work nearly as well as
for source packages [2]. In the Lintian test suite, we see
discrepancies in the same *.changes files [3]. For that reason, I will
soon propose to move all tags that depend on the detection from
'binary' to 'source'.
In practice, that means moving many tags from the check
'changelog-file' to 'source-changelog'. (The check 'fields' may be
split up.) The reclassification of tags as source vs. binary will
cause ripple effects, such as the adjustment of expected tags in the
test suite and potentially the greater ecosystem via overrides.
The detection of native binary packages [1] will be removed.
When both source and binary packages are present, Lintian may in the
future check that changelogs in binary packages are identical to the
source. Thank you to pabs for that idea.
Please share your thoughts.
Kind regards
Felix Lechner
[1] https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/blob/master/lib/Lintian/Collect/Binary.pm#L89-119
[2] https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/blob/master/lib/Lintian/Collect/Source.pm#L146-189
[3] An example are the legacy-maintainer-scripts family of tests; they
use a native template but an erroneous, non-native looking version.
The historical changelog versions, starting at '6.1' are parsed as
non-native, causing faulty Lintian results.
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