Bug#666726: debian-policy: Clarify if empty control fields are ollowed or not

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>]

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014, Charles Plessy wrote:
> Le Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 03:08:47PM -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh a écrit :
> > On Mon, 24 Nov 2014, Charles Plessy wrote:
> > > 
> > > do you have examples of packages having empty fields in source package control
> > > files ?  I have not found any.  (In the sense that a field that only contains
> > > a substitution variable is not considered empty).
> > 
> > They come from empty substitutions, yes.
> 
> Then they are not empty: there is a big difference between "Depends:" and
> "Depends: ${foo}".  I think that it would be very confusing if we would refer
> them as empty.

Well, both are valid.  Can you suggest alternative wording?

For the record, some packages even autogenerate debian/control from a
template during package build.  I can't recall the name of any right now,
though.

> Also, the bug started with a problem where "empty" means "nothing after the
> colon".

In a binary package.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh