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Re: [DEP-5] [patch] Syntax of the files.



On la, 2010-08-14 at 10:16 -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Proliferation of file formats is a bug, not a feature, when you're trying
> to make things readable by software.

Indeed.

> I believe most of these issues are already addressed by referring to the
> syntax description in Policy with the exception of:

Right. It is my understanding that the rough consensus is in favor of
using the same syntax as for Debian control files in general (with
Charles perhaps the only dissenting voice), so I propose the following
attached patch to replace the "Compatibility and Human-Readability"
section with a new short section referencing policy 5.1. (The existing
section is giving requirements for the syntax of the file, such as
human-readability, which was appropriate at the beginning of the
development of the spec, but I think we don't need that in the spec
anymore.)

Does anyone oppose this?

=== modified file 'dep5.mdwn'
--- dep5.mdwn	2010-08-13 05:09:06 +0000
+++ dep5.mdwn	2010-08-14 18:39:15 +0000
@@ -54,17 +54,12 @@
 they have a problem with, even if the licenses are DFSG-free. For
 example, the Affero GPL.
 
-# Compatibility and Human-Readability
-The file must be encoded as UTF-8 and strictly formatted as a superset
-of RFC2822 including significant newlines. Free-form text is not
-allowed.
-
-The `debian/copyright` file must be machine-interpretable, yet
-human-readable, while communicating all mandated upstream information,
-copyright notices and licensing details.
-
-For the sake of human-readability this proposal avoids any complex field
-names or syntax rules.
+# File syntax
+
+The syntax of the file is the same as for other Debian control files,
+as specified in section 5.1 of the Debian Policy Manual.
+See <http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-controlsyntax>
+for details.
 
 # Implementation
 ## Sections


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