Re: What’s the use for Standards-Version?

[Romain Beauxis <toots@rastageeks.org>]

Le jeudi 13 août 2009 00:09:09, Cyril Brulebois a écrit :
>   Romain Beauxis <toots@rastageeks.org> (12/08/2009):
> > Is it foolish to propose this as a lintian check ? "Hey, standards
> > version is outdated, here are the changes that ought to be done"
>
> checks/standards-version.desc

Please, pretty please, try to make sentences. I hardly understand your 
comment, which makes it ambigous.

Here is the output of a lintian warning currently in the case of an outdated 
standards-version:

W: foo: ancient-standards-version 3.7.0 (current is 3.8.2)
N:                                                                                
N:    The source package refers to a Standards-Version that has been obsolete     
N:    for more than two years. Please update your package to latest Policy and    
N:    set this control field appropriately.
N:
N:    If the package is already compliant with the current standards, you
N:    don't have to re-upload the package just to adjust the Standards-Version
N:    control field. However, please remember to update this field next time
N:    you upload the package.
N:
N:    See /usr/share/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.txt.gz in the
N:    debian-policy package for a summary of changes in newer versions of
N:    Policy.
N:
N:    Severity: normal, Certainty: certain


What I mean is that we can use the information contained in the standards-
version tag and display at this place the list of changes that were done since 
3.7.0

That makes a difference in the sense that it helps to improve the workflow by 
putting as much information as possible in the same place.

Even more, if, as I suggested, it lists only changes that couldn't be 
automatised, that would make lintian a consistent tool for checking a package 
against the current policy.


Romain