Bug#459427: changelog vs. NEWS handling

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@debian.org>]

On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 10:09:59PM -0700, Sean Whitton wrote:
> Hello,

Hi Sean,

> On Tue, Feb 27 2018, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> 
> > Policy should define the naming before dh_installchangelogs should
> > change.
> 
> Please expand on why you think this is the way we have to proceed.

you skipped the part of my email with the explanation:

  with such a piecemeal approach
  we risk fragmentation based on debhelper compat level used, with every 
  new compat level installing different files in different locations.

This also referred to a proposal quoted in my email
(which happened to come from a policy editor):

> > I think
> > the most valuable starting point would to be to standardize on
> > /usr/share/doc/package/NEWS.gz for the human-readable summary and
> > explicitly say to never install that as
> > /usr/share/doc/package/changelog.gz.  

On the contents of the proposal I agree with Gregor that I do not 
consider it a good idea to install a different file to changelog.gz
than has been in Debian for the past quarter century.

That's my personal opinion on the contents, others might differ on that.

Regarding the process, something like that should be decided before 
installation of the human-readable summary is done by default by 
debhelper.

A complete mess would be something like:
- dh compat >= 12 installs NEWS to /usr/share/doc/package/NEWS.gz
- dh compat >= 13 no longer installs ChangeLog to /usr/share/doc/package/changelog.gz
- dh compat >= 14 installs NEWS to /usr/share/doc/package/changelog.gz

> We try to have Policy reflect changes already in the archive, rather
> than the other way around, except in situations where that can't make
> sense.

Your point of view sounds to me like
  In 15 years policy will be changed to document whatever the
  debhelper maintainer decides to implement in dh compat 12.

To me this doesn't make sense.

This bug is now over 10 years old, and at some point someone has to 
decide which files should be installed and where.

The obvious way forward would be to try to find a consensus here,
and then ask on debian-devel whether there are any objections.

If anything ends up being controverial and a decision is required, our 
constitution already makes it clear who is responsible for the decision 
(and this is not the debhelper maintainer).

cu
Adrian

-- 

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       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
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