Bug#525997: old-versioned-python-dependency check returns false results
Package: lintian
Version: 2.2.10
Severity: normal
While checking python-sip4-dev (latest revision, not uploaded yet), lintian
complains about
W: python-sip4-dev: old-versioned-python-dependency depends: python (<<
2.6)
although the dependency is corrent. Although I didn't look at the lintian
code (but at the long description), lintian should be changed as described
below:
- The long description says:
..."and no Python-Version control field"
This king of control fields was introduced by python-central and is only
used by python-central, which we're trying to get rid of (in the
python-modules/apps teams at least). python-support doesn't use them (and
does a lot of other things just right, but that's not the place to discuss
this).
- If a package depends on pytho-support and uses it (for example if
there're python-related files in /usr/{lib,share}/pyshared - AND -
if the package uses ${python:Depends} in the Depends line of
debian/control and there's no other python dependency, then, the
package definitely uses the new policy and the dependency on
python was created automatically by dh_pysupport. So there's no
reason for lintian to complain about the dependency.
- If you want to have a closer look on why the dependency is warranted in
python-sip4-dev:
- The package contains debug informations and header files which depend
on the Python version they were built for.
- If there's a new Python version introduces, packages have to be
rebuilt. To find the packages that need to be rebuilt, they need to
depend on python (<< new_version). After rebuilding the package the
Python dependency will be changed accordingly.
I know this is probably weird, if you have more questions, don't hesitate
to contact me (or join #debian-python on oftc).
Cheers,
Bernd
--
Bernd Zeimetz Debian GNU/Linux Developer
GPG Fingerprint: 06C8 C9A2 EAAD E37E 5B2C BE93 067A AD04 C93B FF79
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