[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Bug#947258: lintian: manpage-without-executable is too strict (false positives for subcommand man pages)



Package: lintian
Version: 2.41.0
Control: affects -1 notmuch

The stated version of lintian (and later) produces a
manpage-without-executable warning that is far too strict for modern
subcommand-oriented interfaces.

For example, on the notmuch package, lintian 2.42.0 emits:

I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-address.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-compact.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-config.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-count.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-dump.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-insert.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-new.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-reindex.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-reply.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-restore.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-search.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-setup.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-show.1.gz
I: notmuch: manpage-without-executable usr/share/man/man1/notmuch-tag.1.gz

But of course these are all manpages for subcommands of notmuch,
documented in much the same way that git-tag.1 documents git's
subcommand "tag".

While we can override these tags in the notmuch packaging source, it
seems like it would be better if lintian were more clever about how to
recognize the legitimate error it's trying to document.

If there is a way that notmuch, git, and other subcommand-style tools
should be annotating their manpages to avoid triggering this lintian
report, please update lintian's tag description to point to how to do
this.

Thanks for your work in improving debian!

Regards,

     --dkg

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: PGP signature


Reply to: