Bug#148194: debian-policy: Clarification needed regarding multi-line fields
On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 07:05:28PM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> writes:
>
> > Proposal
> > ========
>
> > I'd like «Section 5.2. "Source package control files -- `debian/control'"»
> > to specify clearly[0] that the following fields contain logical lines:
>
> > Build-Depends, Build-Depends-Indep, Build-Conflicts, Build-Conflicts-Indep,
> > Pre-Depends, Depends, Recommends, Suggests, Conflicts, Replaces, Provides,
> > Enhances, Uploaders
>
> > Those fields will be unwrapped by newer dpkg scripts when generating
> > the .deb, .dsc and .changes files, so the few tools that may not support
> > logical lines will be able to cope just fine.
>
> Seconded. From a lintian perspective, we're intentionally not checking
> for wrapped lines in the debian/control file because all of the tools
> cope.
>
> If worried about breakage in scripts that parse the .dsc and .changes
> files, I think the best thing to do would be to state that wrapping is
> permitted in the debian/control file, but not permitted (except for
> defined fields that already allow multiline values) in DEBIAN/control,
> .changes, or .dsc files. I believe lintian currently implements exactly
> this check.
>
> I can prepare text if there's general agreement that this is the right
> direction to go. I'd been meaning to propose something very much along
> these lines myself.
Ditto, looking forward for a patch along these lines to second :).
--Jeroen
--
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
Jeroen@wolffelaar.nl (also for Jabber & MSN; ICQ: 33944357)
http://Jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl
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