Re: ':any' syntax in package names in jessie/sid Packages
Hi Eugene,
> It seems that in jessie (and similar in sid) a number of packages [1]
> started to use ':' symbol in their dependency lists as part of package
> names. This is, if I'm not misreading the Debian Policy §7.1 and §5.6.1,
> is not allowed.
>
> Suggestions for issue's severity and how to proceed?
I think you've found yet another "multiarch is not documented in policy"
bug. This specific issue is not yet filed, so perhaps filing a bug to track
this problem would be appropriate.
#687900: document multiarch
#650974: Make Policy references to /usr/lib multiarch-aware
#684672: document multiarch tuple definitions
#742756: multi-arch and system-dependent header files
#636383: 10.2 and others: private libraries may also be multi-arch-ified
#621050: Document dependencies needed to use multiarch paths
Unfortunately, the people who understand multiarch well enough to write it
up for policy haven't done so which leaves us with no normative
documentation in policy for the the Multi-Arch field in Packages, no
description of how the package manager should deal with multi-arch packages
and their dependencies and no documentation of best practices for -dev
packages etc.
As with the rest of multiarch, the documentation of python:any is at:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MultiarchSpec#Extended_semantics_of_per-
architecture_package_relationships
(I believe that there are some aspects of that document that have not been
implemented in Debian or have been implemented differently in Debian -- it's
not a substitute for having this in Policy)
Hope that helps
Stuart
--
Stuart Prescott http://www.nanonanonano.net/ stuart@nanonanonano.net
Debian Developer http://www.debian.org/ stuart@debian.org
GPG fingerprint 90E2 D2C1 AD14 6A1B 7EBB 891D BBC1 7EBB 1396 F2F7
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