> > Automating get-orig-source is a fine idea, but tying it to DEP-5 > > would be unfortunate.
[Jonas Smedegaard] > You mean that you prefer a separate file for this info? > > What should be its name? What should be its syntax? > > ...and why start from scratch with this - or does something else already > exist, comparable to the work of DEP-5? Well, two reasons not to bundle it into DEP-5 format files. First, there may be a lot of people like me who would find value in a config-file-driven 'get-orig-source' but who do not find any value in maintaining debian/copyright in DEP-5 format. Tying the two together basically means I probably won't use it, as managing my own .orig generation seems easier than having to maintain a DEP-5 file. By making me choose to migrate to DEP-5 in order to get the uscan feature, you're making the feature less useful. Second, debian/copyright isn't a config file. I'd rather see configuration in a config file. Perhaps the DEP-5 mindset is such that you do see debian/copyright as a config file now, but I think its purpose has always been documentation, not configuration. I guess you can tell I never really cared for "literate programming".... Anyway, I thought I wanted a separate file, but then I remembered that uscan already uses 'debian/watch' for configuration. The syntax of a watch file is pretty awkward, being based on (logical) lines rather than stanzas, and using "opts=foo=1,bar=2" instead of something like "foo=1 bar=2", but it does seem like the right place to put additional uscan configuration. And the watch file format can presumably be fixed, as it is explicitly versioned. > > Unrelated: when I've repacked tarballs, I add a file > > "README.Debian-tarball" to the top level source directory, explaining > > what I did. Nobody ever suggested this to me, it just seems like > > common sense that information about the new tarball should be, well, > > in the new tarball. Not just in the .diff.gz. > > Nowadays such info is commonly put into README.source I know, but that's typically not in the orig.tar.gz. If someone grabs foo_1.0+dfsg.orig.tar.gz by itself, I think it is useful to have a README in there that explains how it is different from an upstream foo-1.0.tar.gz. Hence if you're going to automate repacking, I just wanted to suggest generating a README file to put into the repacked tarball. And as I said, I haven't heard of anyone else doing this, so perhaps I'm the only one who thinks it makes sense. Peter -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20120823221535.gc5...@p12n.org
