Bug#106073: status of this bug?

[Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr>]

On Sat, Sep 27, 2003 at 06:01:51PM +0200, Josip Rodin wrote:
> Some proposed mandating that -doc package contents is placed into
> /usr/share/doc/<package>/, and that the administrivia such as copyright and
> changelog stays in /usr/share/doc/<package>-doc/. This sounds good to me
> because it has a sort of an internal logic, the -doc suffix only exists
> because of packaging, it's actually the docs for <package>. Plus, it's
> shorter, less to type.

I would like to mention that according to policy 12.3:

     Packages must not require the existence of any files in
     `/usr/share/doc/' in order to function [1].  Any files that are
     referenced by programs but are also useful as standalone documentation
     should be installed under `/usr/share/<package>/' with symbolic links
     from `/usr/share/doc/<package>'.

This means that we can't rely on the documentation being ("physically")
in /usr/share/doc at all. However I always add symlinks in
/usr/share/doc/package/ *and* in /usr/share/doc/package-doc/ to the doc.

I believe users installing a package $pkg should be able to see
what it provides without resorting to dpkg -L by looking at 
/usr/share/doc/$pkg. Whether $pkg match *-doc should not interfer.
The symlink just serve that purpose.

> >From strolling the archives, I get the impression that the majority shares
> this sentiment, with one downside: someone might wander into the -doc/ dir
> and wonder where are the docs. This can be easily alleviated by placing a
> symlink from /usr/share/doc/<package>-doc/<package> to
> /usr/share/doc/<package>. I know that there are people who wouldn't like
> such an extra link, but I don't believe there are people who would actually
> object to making everything consistent just because they have to add an
> extra symlink.

Because of the above, I would object to a policy mandating whether
the doc must be physically in /usr/share/doc/<package> or
/usr/share/doc/<package>-doc. This would be a pain for no gain.
But count me in favour of adding the extra symlinks. I believe 
lintian could even check for this.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.