Bug#758425: lintian: add a check for outdated version constraints
On Sun, 17 Aug 2014, Johannes Schauer wrote:
> Lintian could check if any dependency on binary packages has an outdated
> version constraint. If the outdated version constraint is attached to an
> essential package, then the dependency can be dropped completely. This
> will then avoid useless triggering of autopkgtests for those packages.
> If the dependency is not essential then the version constraint can be
> removed. The check whether a version is outdated can easily be done by
> having a data file with package name and its version in oldstable. If
> the version constraint points to a version prior to oldstable then the
> constraint can be dropped or the dependency dropped if it is essential.
If that is ever implemented, it must apply only on dependencies
that can be parsed on the source's debian/control because I would
not be happy to have warnings on library dependencies generated
by dpkg-shlibdeps.
Also there are quite a few maintainers that believe that correct
information don't do much harm and I have a hard time justifying this
change just for the purpose of bootstrapping a new port. The point
9.1 in
http://lists.debian.org/20140829095214.GV19999@stoneboat.aleph1.co.uk only
mentions "compiler dependencies" so maybe this can be restricted
to a smaller subset (or maybe be an "I" by default but a "W" on
the packages where it matters?).
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog ◈ Debian Developer
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