Bug#821363: debian-policy: Allow line-end comments in all Debian packaging control files

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

[ Also redireting to the bug report. ]

On Wed, 2016-04-20 at 11:29:05 +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
> Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org> writes:
> > In the case of the copyright file, the document specifying it does not
> > list # as valid comment markers.
> 
> When we were drafting that specification, I at least intended this text:
> 
>    The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files,
>    as specified in the Debian Policy Manual. See its section 5.1 for
>    details.
> 
> to mean the same syntax as ‘debian/control’. I wasn't even aware when
> drafting it, that a question of comments in one file but not another
> could arise based on the file name.

See my other mail.

> Certainly my intention in that specification was for comments to be
> allowed in the ‘debian/copyright’ file just as they are in
> ‘debian/control’.

If that was clear to everyone then adding it should be fine, indeed.
And then parsers not supporting comments should just be considered
buggy.

> > For example parsing debian/copyright files (or any other file using
> > deb822-based syntax) via the Dpkg::Control::Hash perl module would
> > make it accept such comments, but I don't know if other parsers will
> > accept those too.
> 
> That's a good criterion. Which parsers would you suggest we verify? The
> Emacs mode, the Dpkg Perl modules, and other tools I have used do not
> complain when comments are used in any control-syntax file.
> 
> What would constitute a sufficient degree of investigation of existing
> parsers for this issue?

Some time ago I created a wiki page intended to track this kind of
issues and support in software handling deb822-style syntax:

  <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/Deb822Support>

But didn't have the time to check other implementations and add more
detailed features. But I think that might be a good place to track
support for this too.

The list of additional parsers depends on whether you want to check
for support in deb822 parsers in general or just for debian/copyright.
For the latter I'd add at least:

  * libconfig-model-dpkg-perl
  * libdebian-copyright-perla
  * license-reconcile
  * adequate
  * debmake (?)
  * dpkg-dev-el
  * devscripts (?)

For the former also:

  * apt
  * python-apt
  * python-debian
  * ruby-debian
  * vim
  * grep-dctrl
  * lintian

and probably several of the ones listed in either:

  <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/DscSupport>
  <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/DebSupport>

Thanks,
Guillem