Bug#400112: [PROPOSAL] forbid source/binary package name conflicts

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Manoj Srivastava writes ("Bug#400112: [PROPOSAL] forbid source/binary package name conflicts"):
> On Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:45:18 +0100, Lucas Nussbaum
> <lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net> said:  
> > Some source packages generate binary packages using the same name as
> > another source package. For example, see the 'qd' source package,
> > and the 'qd' binary package generated by the kfolding source package
> > (in contrib).
> >
> > Some tools don't like it at all (e.g sbuild), [...]

Another example is the bug system.  When you submit a bug you (used
to) write:
  Package: <source or binary package name>
  Version: <version of that source or binary package>

The BTS now provides `Source:' instead of `Package:' but it has not
been widely publicised AFAIR, no-one uses it (not even automated
rebuild testers and the like), and it will be hard to get everyone's
brains updated to conform to new requirements in this area.

To make the existing interface to bugs.debian.org unambiguous the
following rule is needed:

  If there are a source package and a binary package with the same
  name then
   (a) that binary package must be generated from the
       identically-named source
  and
   (b) the generated binary package version number must be the
       same as the generating source package version number

>         Why is this not considered a bug in the tools that needs to be
>  fixed, rather than creating policy to work around bugs in the toolchain?

I think that trying to fix everyone's brains not to get confused in
this area is impractical.


People keep telling us that policy is supposed to document existing
practice and that rules which make lots of existing packages buggy are
bad.  I don't necessarily agree, but it seems to me that allowing this
kind of cross-domain name clash makes lots of tools buggy and
therefore should be disallowed at least for now.

The existing standard behaviour of bugs.debian.org, one of our key
pieces of infrastructure, requires the rule above.
If you currently say

  Package: qd
  Version: <something>

then the BTS may or may not send the mail to the right place.


Ian.