Bug#877697: ebian-policy: discourage using all 4 digits numbers in Standards-Version

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Mattia Rizzolo wrote:

> Policy § 5.6.11, after describing the meaning of the digits in the
> policy version, reads:
>
> | Thus only the first three components of the policy version are
> | significant in the Standards-Version control field, and so either
> | these three components or all four components may be specified. [5]
>
> Now, I've only got the impressions that packages should avoid using the
> 4th digit in their Standards-Version field, as that number has no
> meaning when it comes to normative stuff.  I've seen on IRC/MLs all kind
> of comments saying that the 4th digit should be avoided

I have been including the 4th component in packages I maintain.  I
don't know if that's a vote for or against this proposal.

I include it because it makes it unambiguous which version of policy
the team referred to when preparing the package.  Micro policy
releases are not supposed to change the normative stuff but sometimes
they clarify the text of normative sections and that context can be
useful for understanding whether a later clarification was taken into
account in the packaging.

My feeling is that this is fine and that those comments on IRC/MLs are
misguided.  But I could easily be persuaded otherwise.

Thanks and hope that helps,
Jonathan