> > Le Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 09:36:50PM +0900, Charles Plessy a écrit :
> > >
> > > Here is a patch to update the Policy accordingly. Do you have comments ?
> On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 07:44:19AM +0900, Charles Plessy wrote:
> >
> > Anybody wanting to see the Testsuite field documented in the Policy, please
> > raise your hand !
Le Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 03:48:26PM +0200, Andreas Tille a écrit :
>
> Raise my hand ... but for what purpose? Is policy a matter of voting
> about it?
>
> BTW, if I remember correctly recent dpkg will add the field
> automatically so perhaps the documentation for the user might become
> less important (or am I wrong here)?
Hi Andreas,
changes to the Policy work by consensus, so if out of ~1,000 developers there
is not a single one who supports a proposed change, then nothing will happen,
because a wall of silence is a sign of reprobation.
This is actually very efficient to make nothing happen.
As to whether document or not this field, my personal opinion is that Policy's
chapter 5, which documents most fields, should be comprehensive. But perhaps I
over-value the Policy ? Still, I think that it is one asset that Debian
has and other distributions do not. But yes, we can do without if we do not
have the manpower to prevent it from bitrotting.
Anybody Developer who thinks that 1) the Policy is useful and 2) the Testsuite
field is useful, can participate. What is needed is to read the text below,
verify that it reflects the facts, and if yes, send an email containing
something like “seconded”.
> > > + <heading><tt>Testsuite</tt></heading>
> > > +
> > > + <p>
> > > + Simple field containing a comma-separated list of values allowing
> > > + test execution environments to discover packages which provide
> > > + tests. Currently, the only defined value is <tt>autopkgtest</tt>.
> > > + </p>
> > > +
> > > + <p>
> > > + This field is automatically added to Debian source control files by
> > > + <prgn>dpkg</prgn><footnote>from version 1.17.11.</footnote> when
> > > + a <file>debian/tests/control</file> file is present in the source
> > > + package. This field may also be used in source package control
> > > + files if needed in other situations.
> > > + </p>
The whole process for changing the Policy is described in details at the URL below:
https://wiki.debian.org/PolicyChangesProcess
Have a nice day,
Charles
--
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan