Bug#974909: explicitly differentiate between files and fileds in Check:

["Chris Lamb" <lamby@debian.org>]

Pirate Praveen wrote:

> In many lintian outputs (I use lintian -iIEcv --pedantic --color auto),
> Check: is a very good clue for people who are new to packaging. But it
> could be improved further.

"Check: X" here actually refers to the internal script (or "check") that
Lintian runs as part of its regular operation.

For example, "Check: fields/mail-address" communicates only that the
Perl script "checks/fields/mail-address.pm" was the reason this tag
was emitted. In other words, it is not at all a suggestion that the
maintainer need look at the "fields/mail-address" or "debian/watch"
file of their package, despite the overlap of names. It is an internal
identifier of sorts, although it is possible to restrict Lintian's
examination to only specific facets of a package using these same
qualifiers, so they are not entirely private.

In other words, there is a bug here, but it is not quite what you
think. Specifically, the issue is that this is ipso facto a misleading
label and output combination, a bad user interface, as it has led to a
misunderstanding about what Lintian is telling you. This is compounded
by the word "check" being an unfortunately generic term as well,
serving as both noun and (in your inadvertent interpretation) a verb.

I would be interesting to learn if Lintian users requested the
emission of this field. Otherwise, at my first glance, it would seem
to be too misleading warrant its inclusion.


Regards,

--
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
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