Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.8.1.0
Severity: wishlist
Hi,
The Policy section detailing the "Distribution" field in .changes files
specifies that the field may contain a space-separated list of
distributions. Whilst this is technically accurate, the feature has been
deprecated since the "testing" distribution became an official part of
the archive and is, imho, obsolete; the use case of uploading the same
package to unstable and the frozen-stable-to-be as a single upload no
longer applies.
I discussed this with a couple of members of the ftpteam on IRC earlier
today, and they were both in favour of removing support for the feature
from dak. One of them had a dig through the archives and discovered that
there have been no multiple-distribution uploads since 2004; even then
there was only the one upload in that year, with the grand total of
three in 2003.
I propose the following patch, against current git (I also took the
opportunity to fold the old "frozen" distribution information into the
"testing" section):
diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 36f51aa..66466c8 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -3058,10 +3058,9 @@ Package: libc6
<p>
In a <file>.changes</file> file or parsed changelog output
- this contains the (space-separated) name(s) of the
- distribution(s) where this version of the package should
- be installed. Valid distributions are determined by the
- archive maintainers.<footnote>
+ this contains the name of the distribution where this version
+ of the package should be installed. Valid distributions are
+ determined by the archive maintainers.<footnote>
Current distribution names are:
<taglist compact="compact">
<tag><em>stable</em></tag>
@@ -3096,10 +3095,7 @@ Package: libc6
than unstable, but still risky. It is not
possible to upload packages directly to
<em>testing</em>.
- </item>
- <tag><em>frozen</em></tag>
- <item>
From time to time, the <em>testing</em>
distribution enters a state of "code-freeze" in
anticipation of release as a <em>stable</em>
@@ -3123,11 +3119,6 @@ Package: libc6
</taglist>
<p>
- You should list <em>all</em> distributions that the
- package should be installed into.
- </p>
-
- <p>
More information is available in the Debian Developer's
Reference, section "The Debian archive".
</p>
Regards,
Adam
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