Informative addendum to policy clarifying dpkg/maintainer script interface

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>]

Hi,

        I have created a document to clarify the interaction between
 maintainer scripts and dpkg, and examines the state changes for a
 package when a user interacts with the packaging system. The dynamic
 interactions between the packaging system and the package's maintainer
 scripts are described formally using UML diagrams. This document does
 not attempt to describe what the maintainer scripts can or can not do,
 concentrating instead mostly one the packaging system interface. It
 also provides a call graph of the maintainer scripts.

        This document is meant to be informative, not normative, at this
 point, and is presented here mostly since the maintainer scripts
 interaction section of policy is one of the more opaque
 segments. However, it also is trying to formally define the packaging
 system interface formally, and is meant to become normative at some
 point in the future, once it has buy in from the interested parties and
 has been checked for correctness.

        An early draft was sent over to the debian policy mailing list,
 but I thought the time has come to widen the audience a bit. Any
 feedback is appreciated. Please follow up to the policy list
 (debian-policy@lists.debian.org mailing.) Especially welcome would be
 any feedback from the dpkg folk about correctness of the interactions
 depicted. 

        Oh, and before I forget, this is where the document lives currently:

 http://people.debian.org/~srivasta/MaintainerScripts.html

        Thanks in advance,

        manoj
-- 
Today is a good day to bribe a high-ranking public official.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>  
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