Bug#148194: debian-policy: Clarification needed regarding multi-line fields
to, 2006-04-06 kello 16:35 -0700, Russ Allbery kirjoitti:
> Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl> writes:
> > On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 07:05:28PM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
>
> >> 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 :).
>
> Here is the proposed patch. Now looking for seconds.
>
> --- policy.sgml.orig 2005-12-24 13:41:09.000000000 -0800
> +++ policy.sgml 2006-04-06 16:34:13.000000000 -0700
> @@ -2160,7 +2160,11 @@
> <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> to generate the
> <tt>.changes</tt> file to accompany the upload, and by
> <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when it creates the <file>.dsc</file>
> - source control file as part of a source archive.
> + source control file as part of a source archive. Many fields are
> + permitted to span multiple lines in <file>debian/control</cite>
> + but not in any other control file. These tools are responsible
> + for removing the line breaks from such fields when using fields
> + from <file>debian/control</file> to generate other control files.
> </p>
>
> <p>
> @@ -2332,6 +2336,20 @@
> multiple entries should be comma separated. This is an
> optional field.
> </p>
> +
> + <p>
> + Any parser that interprets the Uploaders field in
> + <file>debian/control</file> should permit it to span multiple
> + lines<footnote>
> + In the future, the Uploaders field in
> + <file>debian/control</file> (but not other control files)
> + will be permitted to span multiple lines and interpreting
> + a multiline Uploaders field shall be mandatory.
> + </footnote>. Line breaks in an Uploaders field that spans
> + multiple lines are not significant and the semantic meaning of
> + the field is the same as if the line breaks had not been
> + present.
> + </p>
> </sect1>
>
> <sect1 id="f-Changed-By">
> @@ -3822,6 +3840,15 @@
> </p>
>
> <p>
> + When these fields are used in the <file>debian/control</file>
> + file, line breaks are permitted before any whitespace
> + character. Line breaks are not permitted in these fields when
> + used in any other control file. For consistency it is
> + recommended that line breaks only be used before the whitespace
> + following a comma.
> + </p>
> +
> + <p>
> For example, a list of dependencies might appear as:
> <example compact="compact">
> Package: mutt
Seconded.
--
Crappy tools are not worth it. Find or make better ones.
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