Bug#618013: debian-policy: please clarify where multi-line fields are allowed in control files

[Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar@2008.43-1.org>]

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.9.1.0
Severity: normal

Hi,

I think the wording in chapter 5 (Control files and their fields) is
quite unclear where multi-line fields are allowed.  I am mostly
interested in debian/control in source files, so I'll just discuss this
here.

Accoring to [1] only Uploaders and the relationship fields from
section 7 are supposed to span multiple (physical) lines, but at least
Zack and me got the impression[2] that this is intended for all fields.
Adam also agreed that the current wording is not unambiguous[3].

I would like to have a definite list of fields that may span multiple
lines.  This should also document whether newlines should be preserved
as for the Description or Uploaders fields or not.  Maybe it would also
be good to specify how fields not documented in policy (such as Vcs-* or
Python-Version) are supposed to be handled.

Regards,
Ansgar

[1] <http://bugs.debian.org/372731#10>
[2] <http://bugs.debian.org/526713#40>
[3] <http://bugs.debian.org/526713#25>