Bug#262204: apt-ftparchive: please let generate also create Release

[Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>]

Package: apt-utils
Version: 0.5.26
Severity: wishlist

It looks like currently apt-ftparchive generate doesn't build Release
files, although as near as I can tell, the top-level Release file is
supposed to contain checksums of all of the Packages, Sources, and Release
files in the tree.  (The apt archive format is a bit underdocumented, at
least in what I've been able to find, so I'm not positive.)

Since apt-ftparchive already has support for generating Release files,
it seems like it should be relatively easy to add support for generating
them as part of apt-ftparchive generate.  This probably would also involve
letting apt-ftparchive use per-tree configuration sections to get the
APT::FTPArchive::Release variables.

If this sounds basically like a good idea and no one else is already 
working on this, I'm willing to give this a try.  It's been a long time
since I've written any C++, though, so any design pointers on how one
would go about adding this from someone already familiar with the
structure of apt-ftparchive would be *greatly* appreciated.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.26
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)

Versions of packages apt-utils depends on:
ii  apt [libapt-pkg-libc6.3-5-3 0.5.26       Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-13 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libdb4.2                    4.2.52-16    Berkeley v4.2 Database Libraries [
ii  libgcc1                     1:3.3.4-3    GCC support library
ii  libstdc++5                  1:3.3.4-3    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

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