Soren Stoutner:
Niels,
[...]
I do not consider this to be simply a “lintian” issue. Rather, I consider it
best practice as documented in the Debian Policy Manual.
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#rules-requires-root
Policy is *also* out of date: https://bugs.debian.org/1057238
For me, personally, this is a significant enough of an issue that I would not
sponsor a package that did not specify “Rules-Requires-Root”. Other Debian
Developers may feel differently on this issue, and I would have no hard
feelings if they decided to sponsor the package without it. But, for me, I
would not want to have my name attached.
Our differences here are that I track this particular part of Debian,
which is why I know these details and knew to dismiss both lintian and
policy without second though (though I had to dig up the bug number).
There are certainly other areas of Debian where I am less well-versed
and would have been in your shoes if the written authoritative sources
was all I had to go on and they were all out of date.
I hope you will reconsider your stance on this point given the people
behind `Rules-Requires-Root` have declared that lintian (#1057238) and
policy (#1057238) are "not up to date" on this topic.
Nevertheless, it is indeed your prerogative to decide which packages you
will sponsor and I fully support your right to declare that.
Best regards,
Niels
