On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 12:02:47PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> CC'ing the apt list de...@lists.debian.org.
>
> Goswin von Brederlow writes ("Re: Bug#481129: Bug#671503: general: APT
> repository format is not documented"):
> > Michal Suchanek <michal.sucha...@ruk.cuni.cz> writes:
> > > [ discussions regarding documenting the apt repository format ]
> >
> > I would suggest you look at existing repositories, whatever scraps of
> > information is in the manuals and maybe a bit at the source and start to
> > write a documentation. Once you have that offer it for review and other
> > people can pitch in their bits of knowledge. Getting the current format
> > documented right shouldn't be that hard if someone just starts.
>
> Right.
>
> > And once such a document exists it is much easier to get people do
> > document changes or hit them over the head if they don't.
>
> Can the apt maintainers confirm that once such a document exists, they
> will insist that future contributions to apt which change the
> repository format update the document ?
>
> What form do the apt maintainers think the document should take ?
> Should it eventually be in the apt source package or somewhere else ?I do not think that APT is responsible for the repository format. The repository format is defined by ftpmaster, not by APT. APT has to my knowledge not defined anything new, but only implemented changes to the repository format after they were introduced by ftpmaster (see InRelease files). We currently have three independent implementations of the repository format in the archive: APT, cupt, smartpm. Furthermore, tools like debian-cd probably also have some knowledge about the repository format. The repository format should thus be part of Policy, not part of APT. APT is one of the users of that format, not the one defining it (it might just get stricter in behavior from time to time, just like compilers). Changes to the format should require approval of ftpmaster, as they have to implement them on the server-side. -- Julian Andres Klode - Debian Developer, Ubuntu Member See http://wiki.debian.org/JulianAndresKlode and http://jak-linux.org/.
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