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Bug#218893: Alternative proposal: debian/format



On Mon, Nov 03, 2003 at 09:59:24AM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote:
> Choose one:
> 
> The first is to add a debian/rules.version with meaning:
> debian/rules.version is present and is "1\n": build-arch and build-indep
> are implemented
> 
> The second is to add a debian/rules.targets with the list of available
> optional targets.
> 
> First solution is easier to implement.  Second one scale better but does not
> allow to revoke the meaning of a target.
> 
> If you are going to second this proposal, please state if you prefer
> debian/rules.version or debian/rules.targets.

I like the general idea, but I prefer neither name.

Why are we attaching a versioning concept only to the rules file?

I think we should attach versioning to the entire layout of the unpacked
source package.

This gives us the flexibility to make other kinds of changes without
cluttering debian/ with still more files.

Consider a file debian/format:

$ cat debian/format
rules: 1
control: 2

The above tells dpkg that the package in question is using version 1 of
the debian/rules specification, and version 2 of the debian/control
specification.  (We could retroactively define version 2 of
debian/control as one that permits comments, for which dpkg recently
added support.)

The debian/format file can be extended arbitrarily to suit our needs.
We could change the format of a debian/changelog file with this
technique as well, if needed.

Of course, version 1 is assumed for everything in the absence of a
debian/format file.

Comments?

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |    Lowery's Law:
Debian GNU/Linux                   |    If it jams -- force it.  If it
branden@debian.org                 |    breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |

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