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

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Fri, Feb 06, 2015 at 12:04:05AM +0100, Bill Allombert a écrit :
> 
> Thus I would like to restrict this bug to what is agreed, i.e. binary
> package control files. This also side-step nicely the definition of "empty".

Hi Bill and everybody,

if we all agree that empty fields are not allowed in binary package control
files, and that it is not needed to define what "empty" means, then let's go
for it.

Later, I might propose on debian-devel and debian-dpkg to forbid empty fields
in the whole specification (which means, since we are not using empty fields,
to guarantee that valid files do not and will not contain empty fields).
Anybody is welcome to do so before me.  My goal is to have the format of Debian
control files in the "paragrap" format a little bit less ad-hoc than now, where
a lot of things have to be individually specified for each use of this format.

(For the avoidance of doubt, by empty I mean: nothing or whitespace only after
the colon.)

Have a nice week-end,

Charles

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan