Hi, Am 01.05.2018 um 20:31 schrieb Giovanni Mascellani: > Hi, > > Il 29/04/2018 23:13, Markus Koschany ha scritto: >> Let's remove all VCS fields from all our packages. Those fields are >> optional and not required. We simply use conventions. All packages are >> maintained in Git at salsa.debian.org. Period. > > In line of principle I agree that some package meta information like > Vcs-* and others should be maintained in databases that are independent > of the specific .dsc packages and should not require an upload to be > updated. However, I also personally value homogeneity among Debian > packages, a value so rare that I actually would think twice before > dispersing it. Use different conventions with respect to anything else > make contributions more difficult and makes some tools less useful or > even useless.
The reality is there is no homogeneity in regards with VCS fields in Debian. They are completely optional. Some people don't use them at all, some are still stuck with http://git.debian.org addresses, then we have http|https://anonscm.debian.org or some random github/gitlab address. Some links are broken for years. I know because I have changed this in hundreds of packages before. I don't see the technical merit of those fields if all you have to remember is: the tool is called git and your source package name. git clone https://salsa.debian.org/java-team/myawesomepackage It is a misbelief that contributions would be more difficult without optional values like VCS fields in debian/control. On the contrary the work flow would become simpler and less repetitive. No longer updating VCS or Uploader fields for 1000+ packages. Though our answer to more boilerplate is to create more tools to deal with it. Instead of simplicity we force contributors to add and maintain even more information. > So, unless the proposal is about pushing for a general acceptance of > this change in Debian and about updating somewhat systematically all the > available tools, I personally disagree with it. I have tried to discuss this on debian-devel but as usual there is always someone who strongly disagrees, mostly those people who update five packages per year. In my opinion there is no need to convince everyone. It's completely fine if they want to keep their VCS fields. I'm talking about a pragmatical decision for one team. Regards, Markus
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