Re: Bug#29955: policy versions aren't parallel with packaging-manual

[Richard Braakman <dark@xs4all.nl>]

Adam Di Carlo wrote:
> In article <[🔎] m0ziL0A-000LJSC@bobspc>, Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com> writes:
> >      The most recent version of packaging-manual is 2.4.1.2, while
> > the most recent version of debian-policy is 2.5.0.0.  I believe
> > there has been agreement on the policy list that these documents
> > would maintain parallel version numbers.
> 
> Why should they?  Not that I'm saying they definately shouldn't, I'm
> just trying to understand the reasoning.

We have only one Standards-Version: field.  The whole reason for
syncing these version numbers was, originally, to keep a sane meaning
for this field.  (ref. some discussions with Christian Schwarz long
ago; I'm not going to go digging in the archives for that :)

That said, I'm in favour of dropping the Standards-Version field entirely.
It adds no information, because it's generally not kept up to date, and
even when it says "2.5.0" it doesn't mean that anyone checked it for
compliance with the most recent policy.  (I submit the Lintian web pages
as evidence :-)

If we wish to have a record of when packages are checked (and corrected)
with regard to the latest policy, I think the changelog would be a
good place for it.  "* Updated to policy 2.5.0.0" is easy to add.
So would "* Checked with policy 2.5.0.0; no changes were needed".

Richard Braakman