Re: Lintian severity levels

[Martin-Éric Racine <martin-eric.racine@iki.fi>]

Since everybody has latched onto the two specific examples I brought
up, seemingly assuming that my only issue is with those two specific
cases, let's address them now so that we can return to the more
general issue at stake.

la 27.9.2025 klo 12.01 Martin-Éric Racine (martin-eric.racine@iki.fi) kirjoitti:
> N:
> E: package-installs-apt-sources
> N:
> N:   Debian packages should not install files under
> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ or install an /etc/apt/sources.list file.
> N:
> N:   The selection of installation sources is under the control of the
> local administrator. Packages are generally not allowed to change the
> administrator's choices.
> N:
> N:   As a limited exception for the convenience of administrators,
> packages whose names end in the clearly named -apt-source are
> permitted to install such files.
> N:
> N:   Please refer to the sources.list(5) manual page for details.
> N:
> N:   Visibility: error
> N:   Show-Always: no
> N:   Check: apt
> N:   Renamed from: package-install-apt-sources
> N:

I've googled that one extensively. There is no mention anywhere
outside of lintian-explain-tags of such an exemption for packages
named *-apt-source. Heck, the very existence of *-apt-source package
names isn't documented anywhere at all. Besides, IMHO, given how the
filename for these is *.sources, the package name should accordingly
be *-apt-sources. Regardless of which one Debian ends up preferring,
this needs to be documented somewhere as a best practice for
commercial vendors or administrators who need to include sources to
their repository.

> This is a fairly common case for commercial non-free commercial
> packages and for local packages deployed across a whole company. The
> package includes a sources.list.d file to enable fetching updates, and
> it definitely won't pull in a separate company-apt-source package just
> to quiet down Lintian.
>
> N:
> E: package-installs-apt-preferences
> N:
> N:   Debian packages should not install files under
> /etc/apt/preferences.d/ or install an /etc/apt/preferences file. This
> directory is under the control of the local administrator.
> N:
> N:   Package should not override local administrator choices.
> N:
> N:   Please refer to the apt_preferences(5) manual page for details.
> N:
> N:   Visibility: error
> N:   Show-Always: no
> N:   Check: apt
> N:   Renamed from: package-install-apt-preferences
> N:
>
> There is an obvious need to prefer customized versions over Debian
> versions for packages deployed across a whole company.

While I can perfectly see why the Debian archive would not want to
introduce packages with a preferences file without any compelling
reason to do so, the above lintian-explain-tags output doesn't tell
what someone trying to build and deploy a company-wide custom package
needs to know to ensure that it will always be preferred to the stock
Debian package.

Martin-Éric