Bug#567485: [checks/lintian] changed-by-name-missing is not Severity: serious

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

tags 567485 wontfix
thanks

Jean-Christophe Dubacq <jcdubacq1@free.fr> writes:

> Though the check is correct, it should not be severity serious: the
> format of the Changed-By (and the Maintainer field) is not mandated by a
> MUST, only a SHOULD.

I don't agree for two reasons:

* maintainer-name-missing and uploader-name-missing are both automatic
  rejects in the ftp-master checks, which makes them automatically
  severity: serious in Lintian.  That's not the specific one that you're
  asking about, but that's the rule that Changed-By references.

* The Policy description for Changed-By says "The name and email address
  of the person who changed the said package."  That's not a should.
  That's a statement of what that field shall include, which means that if
  it doesn't have the name and e-mail address, it's a syntax error and
  therefore is a violation of an implicit must.

I see where your reading is coming from, but suspect the best fix is to
just change the Policy wording to make it clear that this is a must.
There's really no reason to use a different format, and Debian elsewhere
already requires names.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>