Bug#868496: debian-policy: Please Clarify Need for update-fonts-dir in postinst and postrm Scripts

[Paul Hardy <unifoundry@gmail.com>]

Control: severity 868496 wishlist

On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 1:01 PM, Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> wrote:
> Hello Paul,
>
> On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 02:56:24AM -0700, Paul Hardy wrote:
>> Then would you consider it acceptable to make some mention in a
>> footnote to the effect that with the latest "dh" build tools, it isn't
>> necessary to have postinst and postrm scripts in the debian directory
>> for this purpose?  Because otherwise, someone who did not already know
>> about this could misunderstand the implications of this requirement
>> and create redundant postinst and postrm scripts.
>
> The problem is that if we think there should be footnotes explaining
> that there is a dh_* tool that takes care of the requirement, we would
> then need new footnotes to almost every section of Policy.  That would
> be a bad idea.

Yes, I could see that spiraling out of control.

My intention was to point someone new to packaging fonts in Debian in
the direction of an easy path, rather than leaving it up to that
person to find things out the hard way--or worse yet, doing things the
hard way.

How about a footnote pointing to
https://wiki.debian.org/Fonts/PackagingPolicy?  That document is not
formal policy, but it would make life easier for someone if they are
new to packaging fonts.

Alternatively, do you think this bug report should get reassigned to
the New Maintainer's Guide and be addressed as a request there?  The
scope of that guide is mainly to walk someone through creating a
simple binary package.

I have downgraded this bug to "wishlist" because it is not an actual
issue with Debian Policy.

Thanks,


Paul Hardy