Bug#530687: debian-policy: Please provide policy for architecture wildcards

[Andres Mejia <mcitadel@gmail.com>]

On Wednesday 27 May 2009 17:22:19 Andrew McMillan wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-05-27 at 14:33 -0400, Andres Mejia wrote:
> > > > Current policy has this wording and I didn't want to change that, so
> > > > yes, it's on purpose.
> > >
> > > Not quite.  Current policy says "arch list or 'any' or 'all'" and
> > > that's fine (at least for debian/control), because it wouldn't make
> > > sense for a binary package's Architecture field to be 'any' or 'all'
> > > *plus* an explicit list of architectures.
> > > (yes, .dsc might need different rules, but.)
> >
> > Ok, here's the wording current policy.
> > "one may specify a list of architectures separated by spaces, or the
> > special values any or all."
> >
> > Here's part of my proposal.
> > one may specify a list of architectures separated by spaces, a list of
> > architecture wildcards separated by spaces, or the special values any or
> > all.
>
> As a native english speaker that wording seems to me to imply (list of
> specific and/or wildcard architectures) or (any) or (all), which seems
> to be what you intend, but I guess it is open to possible
> misinterpretation in the manner Julien suggests.
>
> How about:
>
> "... a list of specific and wildcard architectures separated by spaces,
> or the special values 'any' or 'all'."

Or perhaps this:

"... either a list of specific architectures and/or architecture wildcards 
separated by spaces, or the special values 'any' or 'all'."

-- 
Regards,
Andres