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

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Sat, May 21, 2011 at 08:47:22AM +0200, Guillem Jover a écrit :
> 
> 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”.

Dear Guillem,

§5.1 (Syntax of control files) sepcifies that

  The paragraphs are separated by empty lines. Parsers may accept lines
  consisting solely of spaces and tabs as paragraph separators, but control files
  should use empty lines.

and

  Paragraph separators (empty lines) and lines consisting only of spaces and tabs
  are not allowed within field values or between fields. Empty lines in field
  values are usually escaped by representing them by a space followed by a dot. 

The control file described in #308082 and other control files where empty lines
in field values are not escaped with a space are definitely not valid.  If
necessary, a note could be added in §5.6.13 to remind §5.1.

Have a nice week-end,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan