Bug#953911: debian-policy: clarify documentation of "Closes: #NNNNNN" changelog syntax

["Daniel Shahaf" <danielsh@apache.org>]

Sean Whitton wrote on Sat, 14 Mar 2020 19:06 +00:00:
> Hello Daniel,
> 
> On Sat 14 Mar 2020 at 06:14PM +00, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
> 
> > The documentation of the "Closes: #NNNNNN" changelog syntax describes
> > the syntax in terms of a Perl regular expression.  However, not all
> > readers know Perl.  I suggest to describe the semantics in English,
> > in addition to or instead of the description in Perl.
> 
> How about including both the Perl and the English, to make things easier
> for the maximum number of people?

Sure, we could do that.

What shape would this take?  Would the Perl definition be authoritative
and the English one informative, or vice versa?  (Or something else
altogether?)

I think both options are workable, and I have no preference between them.

Cheers,

Daniel

> Removing the Perl strikes me as deleting something which could be very
> useful to someone (e.g. if they're writing a script of some kind).