Bug#433625: apt: please make configuration for Release file generation more orthogonal

[Marc Haber <mh+debian-bugs@zugschlus.de>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.7.3
Severity: wishlist

Hi,

apt-ftparchive has the "generate" parameter which used to be enough to
do everything necessary to generate the helper file for an aptable
Debian archive. This, however, does not generate Release files on
distribution level (for example the file found on
http://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian/dists/lenny/Release).

To generate these, apt-ftparchive release is needed, which reads
differnet stanza in apt.conf (APT::FTPArchive::Release), which does
not seem to have a mechanism to select the actual distribution that
the Release file is to be built. This means that

(a) it is not easily possible to integrate release file building into
    apt-ftparchive generate and
(b) that each actual distribution needs its own apt.conf file.

Please consider re-working that configuration format to integrate
better. For example:

APT::FTPArchive::Release::sid {
   Origin "zg";
   Label "zg/sid";
   Suite "zg/sid";
   Codename "zg/sid";
   Description "zg backports and local packages, geared for sid";
   FilePath "dists/sid/Release";
   SearchPath "dists/sid";
};

APT::FTPArchive::Release::lenny {
   Origin "zg";
   Label "zg/lenny";
   Suite "zg/lenny";
   Codename "zg/lenny";
   Description "zg backports and local packages, geared for lenny";
   FilePath "dists/lenny/Release";
   SearchPath "dists/lenny";
};

Greetings
Marc