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

[Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>]

On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 12:07:32AM +0500, Andrey Rahmatullin wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 09, 2015 at 07:14:07PM +0100, Bill Allombert wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 12:23:17AM +0500, Andrey Rahmatullin wrote:
> > > Control: tags -1 + patch
> > > 
> > > On Sat, Aug 04, 2012 at 11:19:15AM +0900, Charles Plessy wrote:
> > > > How about the attached patch, that adds "Its value must not be empty."
> > > > after "The field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the last
> > > > continuation line".
> > > Seconded.
> > 
> > Hello Andrey and Ansgar (and others)
> > 
> > Would you second the attached version that was posted in this bug already ?
> 
> > commit ec38643c34333231a2e179ba1e135fd2ebccbf7a
> > Author: Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr>
> > Date:   Sun Nov 23 16:16:21 2014 +0100
> > 
> >     Document that empty field values are only allowed in debian/control.
> >     
> >     Policy: [5.1] empty field values in control files are not allowed in the
> >     debian/control file of a source package.
> >     Wording:  Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>
> >     Seconded: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
> >     Closes: #666726
> > 
> > diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
> > index 947a1e1..4adee0b 100644
> > --- a/policy.sgml
> > +++ b/policy.sgml
> > @@ -2558,7 +2558,9 @@ Package: libc6
> >  	  the field name is <tt>Package</tt> and the field value
> >  	  <tt>libc6</tt>.
> >  	</p>
> > -
> > +        <p> Empty field values are only permitted in source package control files
> > +	  (<file>debian/control</file>). Such fields are ignored.
> > +        </p>
> >  	<p>
> >  	  A paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
> >  	  particular field name.
> > @@ -2701,6 +2703,7 @@ Package: libc6
> >  	  file. These tools are responsible for removing the line
> >  	  breaks from such fields when using fields from
> >  	  <file>debian/control</file> to generate other control files.
> > +	  They are also responsible for discarding empty fields.
> >  	</p>
> >  
> >  	<p>
> Seconded.

Thanks, I have created a git branch bug666726-bill with this patch.
If nothing happen, I will commit it in a few day.

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.