On 08.09.2016 17:39, Russ Allbery wrote: > Markus Koschany <a...@debian.org> writes: > >> I have written a macro to update the Standards-Version field because it >> is such a boring task. Declaring compliance with the Policy over and >> over again by updating this field and mentioning it in the d/changelog, >> doesn't strike me as being a useful task. There are better ways to >> determine bit rot IMO. > > If Lintian says that the Standards-Version field is out of date, I then > open /usr/share/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.txt.gz, scroll down > to the current value of Standards-Version, and then read backwards to the > top, checking each item against my knowledge of the package to see if > there's anything I need to update. Then I update Standards-Version in the > packaging. > > If you're just automatically updating it without ever looking at how > Policy has changed, then yes, it's not useful. And I don't think it's > very useful to publish. But if you use it as a bookmark for the > maintainer so that you know what version you last checked the package > against and therefore what bits of the upgrading checklist you need to > check, I think it's pretty helpful.
I didn't want to imply that we don't check the Policy before updating the field, just that it is such a repetitive task for team-maintained Java packages (which can all look quite similar), that you need some kind of tool to keep your sanity. Even for non-Java packages I find that the Standards-Version field is not useful enough to warrant its inclusion in debian/control. There are other ways how you can remind yourself to check your package against a new Policy release with tools outside the source package. In my opinion it has more to do with how you organize yourself and maintain your packages. > I will say, though, that it's much more useful for individual packages > than it is for large sets of team-maintained packages where you're more > likely to change Policy-related things across all packages at once.
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