On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 05:06:59PM -0600, David Segonds wrote: > As a newbie, ignoring lintian advices does not seem the right thing to > do for some reasons. :) > > Which raises another question. How good are lintian advices? > > If lintian developers spent time integrating those warnings, they must > be of some value.
It depends on the test. Some tests are inherently less accurate than others. Lintian cannot interpret the contents of a text document named INSTALL; it can only infer the contents from its name. If the contents are correct, lintian is wrong, but then also the file could be incorrectly named. > Do sponsors systematically run lintian before agreeing to upload a > package? Can a lintian warning stop an upload? I run lintian and/or linda on every upload, as do many others. I'm sure there are others who do not. Regardless, it is understood that these tools are not infallible. > Packaging time is also a factor. It is only a few well documented lines > that need to be changed in the configuration file but automatizing the > process may require a lot of work. As a user, I go an twick conffiles > myself. Can I expect this from the "average" user? (if such a thing > exists) You likely know your users better than anyone else; you are one at least. If you're concerned about whether it would take too much time or effort to implement it correctly, try the (much simpler) conffile approach first, and consider adding more involved configuration options in the future if it seems to make sense. -- - mdz
