Bug#357162: debian-policy: preserve /usr/share/doc/*/* timestamps
On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 03:25:21AM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Package: debian-policy
> Version: 3.6.2.1
> Severity: wishlist
>
> Many /usr/share/doc/*/* file maintainers don't
> cp --preserve=timestamps (cp -p) their updates. Thus upon ls -l,
> README.blorg looks like it was updated yesterday, when in fact it
> hasn't changed since 2002, upstream or downstream.
>
> I recall somewhere in some documents a recommendation on keeping
> original dates, but even many of the sharpest Debian developers aren't
> hip to cp -p, or cp -a yet. There must be hundreds of packages like
> this. I suppose I shall find that policy paragraph and file a wishlist
> bug against such a package when I encounter it.
I suppose you are looking for:
5.1. Time Stamps
----------------
Maintainers should preserve the modification times of the upstream
source files in a package, as far as is reasonably possible.[1]
[1] The rationale is that there is some information conveyed by knowing
the age of the file, for example, you could recognize that some
documentation is very old by looking at the modification time, so it
would be nice if the modification time of the upstream source would be
preserved.
Probably we could add a tip about 'cp -p' in this section.
To actually fix the problems, the most efficient would be a lintian
check, but it is not entirely clear how to proceed.
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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