Re: Where are translated man pages packaged?

[Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>]

Denis Barbier wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> There is currently no consensus whether translated man pages should
> be shipped along with original man pages or within manpages-xx packages.

The general rule is that manpages-$lang contains translated manual
pages from the manpages (upstream name: man-pages) package, i.e. libc,
general and kernel manpages.  However, translation upstream make
exceptions so section 1 pages are included as well.

Hence, translations of manual pages from non-manpages packages should
go into the package in question in general and not into the
manpages-foo package.

> Unfortunately this leads to conflicts when a translation is first
> shipped by the latter, then incorporated into the former (e.g. when
> it becomes part of upstream tarball).

"Simply" disable it from the manpages-foo package.  That's already
done with the manpages package (read: check how it's done) in Debian
as well, since it ships some manual pages that are also present in
other packages and Debian considered the other ones more appropriate.

> Some developers are reluctant to include French translated man pages and
> ask me to ship them in manpages-fr.  How can I make them change their
> mind?  Is there a consensus that translated man pages must go with
> original man pages?  Are exceptions needed for some packages?

I'd say that if the maintainer doesn't want to clutter his package
with non-english manpages that aren't supported by upstream,
manpages-foo is a better place than /dev/null.  Alternatively you
could start manpages-foo-debian or something similar if you're about
to collect a whole bunch of manpages that can't be included in the
Debian package the original manpage is in.

Regards,

	Joey

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