RE: [Pkg-kde-extras] Bug#498263: kaffeine: please provide debian/README.source
ti, 2008-09-09 kello 12:50 +1000, Mark Purcell kirjoitti:
> We provide a patch target, which we felt meets the requirement of policy 2.8.
(There is no section 2.8 in the policy manual. The relevant section is
4.14,
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#s-readmesource)
> debian-devel, is there a view, does one need README.source if you
> provide a patch target and use one of the standard patch management
> systems? Seems like this would cover 90% of use cases and add very
> little value!
Quoting section 4.14:
If running dpkg-source -x on a source package doesn't produce
the source of the package, ready for editing, and allow one to
make changes and run dpkg-buildpackage to produce a modified
package without taking any additional steps, creating a
debian/README.source documentation file is recommended.
...
It should not assume familiarity with any specific Debian
packaging system or patch management tools.
My reading of this is that a README.source file should be added even for
the common non-standard case of cdbs and patch target. (The way to fix
this is to change the source format so that you don't need to have a
patch target.)
Note that this is a recommendation only: it's a good idea to add it, but
it is by no means required. At least for the time being, if you don't
feel like it, feel free to not add the file.
(FWIW, I don't think it's worthwhile, at this point in time, to file
bugs about missing README.source files. If README.source ever becomes
something more than a recommendation, lintian needs to start checking
the usual cases in which it is missing, and a while after that is done,
then bug filing becomes more reasonable.)
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