Bug#627490: debian-policy: Description field specification is ambiguous

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.9.2.0
Severity: normal
User: debian-policy@packages.debian.org
Usertag: issue

Hi!

The current specification for the Description field in §5.6.13 seems
to be ambiguous regarding what can or cannot follow the initial
characters.

It specifies that a line can start with either “a single space” or
“two or more spaces”, or contain either “a single space followed by
full stop” or “a single space followed by full stop and some more
characters”.

What does not seem to be clear is if the two first types can
optionally have characters following the initial spaces, or if by
“starting” it's implied they require them to be “continued”.


I've stumbled over this when checking #308082. The problem here is
that the binaries in dpkg.deb accept Description lines with just one
or more space (w/o anything else). But the scripts in dpkg-dev,
lintian or dctrl-tools fail to parse such stanzas, which might be an
issue for installed packages, and having this inconsitency even inside
dpkg itself is a bit troubling. :)

Making dpkg.deb refuse lines with just spaces will imply less changes
overall, as several other packages seem to be refusing them already,
it's also probably visually less confusing for people when reading
control files.

thanks,
guillem