Bug#543417: README.source patch system documentation requirements considered harmful
Raphael Geissert <geissert@debian.org> writes:
> Some exceptions are indeed required, but like Andrew already said it
> should be done with care. Some wording more generic than just "standard
> quilt and dpatch using lists of patches". I think everyone is used to
> dpatch and quilt with lists of patches in debian/patches/{series,00list}
> and cdbs' simple patch system, but anything else like dpatch with a
> lists of patches hardcoded in the rules file should at least point that
> out. I've seen one package using dpatch which was NMUed twice by two
> different people whose patches never got applied because they didn't add
> them to the patches list hardcoded in the rules file.
Yeah, exactly. I want to make sure that something like that is still
documented, and I'd like to see any new patch helper be documented until
it's achieved enough archive usage that the security and release teams are
already familiar with it and see it all the time, which I think is true of
both quilt and dpatch.
I do think the specific *tools* quilt and dpatch (and maybe CDBS
simple-patchsys) are what should get the exception, not just the general
process that they use, since the point of the documentation is to make
sure people know how to use the specific tools required.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: