Re: DEP 12: Per-package machine-readable metadata about Upstream
On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:57 PM, Guillem Jover wrote:
> I guess we could have a discussion about the possibility/advantages of
> having one index file (ex. Packages) containing exclusively machine
> consumable metadata (for package managers), to favour small/embedded
> systems, and another one with user consumable metadata. Because these
> could be recombined by high-level package managers if desired, think
> the distinction between apt and aptitude for example, or apt with an
> option. The first fields that come to mind could be Homepage,
> Maintainer and Description (and for the latter this has already happened
> somewhat). But then this does not require a split in the source format,
> but only in the archive indices, and possibly in the package managers
> frontends.
Splitting up Packages and Sources into stuff needed by different
audiences (dpkg/apt, PackageKit, buildds, users, developers etc) is
something that I have wanted to see for years. Having additional
metadata from popcon, debian/upstream and other sources would be
excellent too.
I would encourage the authors of DEP-11 and DEP-12 to join forces and
come up with a comprensive proposal covering Packages/Source audience
splitup and metadata extraction from various sources.
--
bye,
pabs
http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
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