Bug#276953: debian-policy: please clarify section 12.7.

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>]

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.6.1.1
Severity: wishlist


This is not a formal proposal since I'm no Debian developer,
but it would be nice if the following would be clarified:


The first paragraph of section 12.7. of your policy is:

<--  snip  -->

     Packages that are not Debian-native must contain a compressed copy of
     the `debian/changelog' file from the Debian source tree in
     `/usr/share/doc/<package>' with the name `changelog.Debian.gz'.

<--  snip  -->



My personal opinion:

I'd read this section of your policy that
/usr/share/doc/<package>/changelog.Debian.gz must always point to
"a compressed copy of the `debian/changelog' file from the Debian
source tree" <package> was built from.

Therefore, if the /usr/share/doc/<package>/changelog.Debian.gz
comes from another binary package (built from the same source
package), a strict dependency on exactly the same version is
required. Otherwise, e.g. apt-listchanges can't work correctly
on partial upgrades.



Other people disagree and say that only an unversioned or less strict
versioned dependency was required (see the discussions in #249414
and #276822).



Could you clarify this issue in your policy?


TIA
Adrian