Re: Standards-Version field should be deprecated
On Thu, Sep 08, 2016 at 05:28:18PM +0200, Markus Koschany wrote:
> On 08.09.2016 14:30, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > Emmanuel Bourg writes ("Re: Network access during build"):
> >> That makes sense, but in this case what is the usefulness of the
> >> Standards-Version field? And more precisely, why is it considered an
> >> error [1] to omit it?
> >
> > The field is useful because it shows the most recent version of the
> > policy that the package has been checked against. It is useful to
> > occasionally update packages to the latest standards, and the
> > Standards-Version field can be used to spot how long it has been for
> > this particular package. Policy comes with handy summaries of the
> > changes, for use when checking/updating a package.
>
> I agree with Emmanuel and I also think that the Standards-Version field
> should be deprecated. People expect that a package complies with the
> most recent Policy and latest standards when it is updated. That's an
> implicit expectation that should not require a regular and tedious
> update of a debian/control field. If a package doesn't comply with
That is certainly not true for orphaned packages with minimal maintenance
by the QA team. At least when I do a QA upload I usually don't bump the
Standards-Version field, simply because I don't know the package that
well.
-Ralf.
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