Re: length of a package extended description
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 02:56:25PM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> Some texlive-* packages (and perhaps others) have a huge extended
> description, e.g. more than 1900 lines for texlive-latex-extra!
>
> Shouldn't the length be limited by the Debian policy?
>
> Otherwise shouldn't utilities (such as "dpkg -s") provide a
> configurable way to limit the output of the "Description:" field?
In this specific case, the length is not a bad thing. It allows for
efficient keyword search, for example. You can limit what is shown by
using dpkg-query instead. For example, you can exclude description
completely.
My pet peeve with long descriptions has to do with copy/pasting large
blocks for *every* *single* *binary*, then adding a one line "This
package has debug symbols" or similar. Then a keyword search hits
every single binary...
- Adam
--
Adam Majer
adamm@zombino.com
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