Bug#540852: Describe use of 'urgency' (other than in the context of a security fix)

[Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>]

Package: developers-reference
Version: 3.4.1
Severity: normal

I was recently trying to learn how to select correct values for the
"urgency" field in debian/control for a package. I found that Debian
Policy describes legal values for this field, (low, medium, high,
emergency, or critical), but no real guidance on how to choose one of
the fields. And perhaps that's correct since the usage isn't a matter
of policy.

So I looked to the Developer's Reference for documentation on how to
set this field, and failed to find it, (later Enrico Zini pointed out
that I missed section "5.8.5.4. Preparing packages to address security
issues" which does mention "* The upload should have urgency=high.").

But for other than security issues, no guidance is provided.

Finally, I found a mailing list post that does provide some guidance:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.mentors/29417

This recommends using low for normal stuff (with a 10-day transition
to testing), medium for release-critical issues (with a 5-day
transition), and high for security fixes (a 2-day transition).

Would it make sense to add a section to Developer's Reference with
these details? Perhaps a new subsection under "6.2. Best practices for
debian/control"?

If so, let me know and perhaps I can prepare a patch for this.

Thanks,

-Carl