Bug#645384: lintian: should check for binary version of coyright file not source
* Nicholas Bamber <periapt@debian.org>, 2011-10-15, 09:14:
The Debian policy states the need for a copyright file but always
refers to the binary version rather than the source version.
Not always. Quoting Policy 12.5: "A copy of the file which will be
installed in /usr/share/doc/<package>/copyright should be in
debian/copyright in the source package."
So the copyright file might be package specific and may even be
generated (which an upcoming version of pkg-components supports).
It's true, but having different copyright files in binary packages built
from the same source:
1) is a (admittedly, non-serious) policy violation;
2) it can cause practical problems, e.g. PTS (which is source-based)
points users to copyright file for a binary package.
However lintian looks for the source version when it seems that the
policy only really permits it to scrutinize the binary version.
It's not true. We have checks both for copyright files in binary
packages[0] and in source packages[1]. The latter was added very
recently and contains almost exclusively DEP-5-related tests. (Checking
DEP-5 stuff in binary packages doesn't make much sense, since the Files
field refers to files in the _source_ package.)
[0] http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=lintian/lintian.git;a=blob;f=checks/copyright-file.desc
[1] http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=lintian/lintian.git;a=blob;f=checks/source-copyright.desc
--
Jakub Wilk
Reply to: