Re: decision on the `du' control files
On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Joey Hess wrote:
> Christian Schwarz wrote:
> > The last days, there was an `endless' discussion on debian-policy about
> > the use of `du' control files. Though, the discussion has not yet ended, I
> > think we have a consensus on the statement below. (If not, consider this
> > as executive decision :)
>
> I thought Ian made those? ;-)
Not only him... ;-)
> > Joey, please deactive the `dh_du' script of the debhelper package.
>
> I will keep the script, but it will simply output a warning that it does
> nothing and should be removed from debian/rules.
Ok.
> > In summary, I'll activate the Lintian check for `du' files again. Lintian
> > will issue an error message if this control file is discovered.
>
> Could we downgrade this to a warning, please, for a few weeks? About 260
> debian packages currently include du files. If everyone fixes them en masse
> to clear up lintian errors, that will probably be several hundred MB of
> uploads that hit the mirrors. (I myself can account for about 40 mb of
> uploads in one night if I rebuild all my .deb's without the du control
> file!) I don't think this is a serious enough change to warrent such a
> thing.
>
> If it's just a warning, then all packages rebuilt with the new debhelper
> will automatically lose the du control file, and over the next month, a good
> percentage of them should be fixed, then you can upgrade it to an error and
> catch the rest.
Well, by definition it's clearly an `error' since it's an obvious
violation of policy and it's unlikely that lintian detects the du file by
mistake (it's easy to see if a package contains a `du' control file :).
However, an `error' does not necessarily mean that everyone has to update
her package immediately--lots of people wouldn't do this anyways. It is up
to the maintainer whether she thinks updating the package is necessary
just to fix this or not.
Do you agree?
Thanks,
Chris
-- Christian Schwarz
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