There's been some discussion of package announcement file format recently. I have some observations on matters relating to this.
Observation #1: There are disconnects between package announcements and the availability of packages in the distribution. 1. Packages are generally announced to debian-changes by the package maintainer immediately after being uploaded. 2. The announced packages generally become available in the general distribution after a delay of up to several days following their announcement. 3. Sometimes, announced packages don't become available in the general distribution until after long delays. 4. Occasionally, announced packages never do become available in the general distribution. Observation #2: It's been opined that the current dchanges(1) package announcement format is very machine-readable. Observation #3: It's been opined that the current dchanges(1) package announcement format is not very human-readable. To address concerns growing out of these observations, current package changes processing might be changed as follows: 1. debain-changes becomes a read-only list, except for a restricted group of subscribers allowed to post there. 2. Instead of being posted to debian-changes, packages announcements would be uploaded with the other package files. Package announcements would be required to be in some particular format which is very machine-readable -- possibly the dchanges(1) format. 3. Mechanized package announcements would be made to debian-changes as packages are moved from Incoming into the general distribution. The mechanized package-announcer would be the usual source of postings to debian-changes. 4. If desired, the very machine-readable package announcement uploaded with the package might be translated into some other format deemed to be more human-readable my the mechanized package-announcer, and posted to debian-changes in that alternative format. [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Mitchell)