Bug#530378: debian-policy: allow /usr/share/doc/<package> to point to another indirectly-depended-upon package's dir

[Serafeim Zanikolas <serzan@hellug.gr>]

Hi Russ,

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 01:01:48PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Serafeim Zanikolas <serzan@hellug.gr> writes:
> 
> > Policy allows a package's doc directory to be a symlink to another
> > package's doc directory, as long as they are:
> >
> > - from the same source package and
> > - the first package directly depends upon the second
> >
> > I propose that that the second requirement is relaxed to allow for an
> > indirect dependency of the first package to the second (as long as all
> > packages involved have the same source).
> 
> Why do you feel this would be a good change?  I don't think I understand
> what would be gained that would be worth making a change, since we're
> still talking about a set of packages all built from the same source.

Perhaps a specific example might clarify the issue.

- bogofilter (dummy package that only contains a symlink to
  /usr/share/doc/bogofiflter-common) depends on bogofilter-db
- bogofilter-db is a virtual package provided by bogofilter-{bdb,sqlite,etc},
- bogofilter-{bdb,sqlite,etc} depend on bogofilter-common

The bogofilter binary package violates policy in that it symlinks a directory
from a package it doesn't depend on directly, even though it's guaranteed that
the /usr/share/doc/bogofilter symlink will always be correct. The proposed
policy change would not require bogofilter to depend directly on -common, as
the reason to do so is satisfied via an indirect dependency.

-S