Bug#556015: Clarify requirements for copyright file

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi Russ,

Russ Allbery wrote:

> Right, this was the reason why I hadn't committed anything yet.  We have
> to decide whether we're going to prohibit arch:any -> arch:all links
> completely to ensure that the binNMU changelog entries are visible.  My
> inclination is to do so, and hence drop this whole section and just say
> that it's not allowed, but this will declare several packages in Debian
> buggy.
>
> Now, depending on how you read Policy, they were *already* buggy, since
> Policy has always required that packages ship changelog files, and those
> packages are in essence not including accurate changelog files.  But this
> is making that very explicit.

For what it's worth, I agree --- it seems best to prohibit
arch:any -> arch:all links until a better solution comes around.

> Is there any package out there right now that's using separated copyright
> files as you describe above, without a combined copyright file that
> contains all the details?

Not that I know of.  For simplicity, I prefer to have everything in
debian/copyright.  Automatically extracting the copyright file is a
useful thing to be able to do.

> Yup, they do.

Thanks for the clarifications.
Jonathan