Re: proposed MBF: packages still using source format 1.0
On Sun, Mar 06, 2022 at 09:25:45PM +0100, Lucas Nussbaum wrote:
>...
> I think that we should reduce the number of packages using the 1.0 format, as
> (1) format 3.0 has many advantages, as documented in
> https://wiki.debian.org/Projects/DebSrc3.0 ; (2) this contributes to
> standardization of packaging practices, lowering the bar for contributors to
> contribute to those packages.
>...
You are not making a compelling case that these benefits clearly
outweight the substantial costs.
Such a MBF also:
(1) causes a lot of extra work, and
(2) causes a lot of breakage because such larger packaging changes
are rarely done as careful as would be necessary
When people are making invasive packaging changes like a dh compat bump
or change the packaging due to such a MBF we often end up with bug
reports like #1000229 where something broke due to that (empty binary
packages are among the more typical breakages).
Unless a compelling case is made that the benefits of a MBF clearly
outweight these drawbacks, such MBFs usually have a negative benefit.
lintian already warns or has info tags that should be upgraded to warning,
and then there will be slow migrations usually happening when someone
anyway does (and tests!) larger packaging changes.
Ensuring that all relevant lintian tags are warnings would be the
appropriate action (which is not yet true[1]), but there is no urgency
on getting everything "fixed" immediately.
cu
Adrian
[1] https://lintian.debian.org/tags/older-source-format
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