On Tue, Aug 18 2009, Don Armstrong wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Aug 2009, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
>> Given these, I read this as letting the tools rely on
>> the following invariants, even though these are not explicitly spelled
>> out in so many words in policy:
>>
>> 1) If there is a - in the version number, then the package is
>> non-native
>> a) the upstream version is the part of the string until the last
>> '-' in the version number
>> b) there is a .orig.tar.gz and
>> c) diff.gz referenced in the .dsc
>>
>> 2) If there is no '-' in the version number, then the package is a
>> debian native package
>> a) there is no debian revision, all the version number is the
>> upstream version number
>> b) there is a tar.gz and no diff.gz in the .dsc file
>
> (1) is not necessarily true in the case of NMUs of native packages.[1]
> The only way to tell if a package is native or not is to inspect the
> .dsc. [So long as the as-yet-to-be-proposed wording is clear on this,
> it should be a big deal.]
I understand today that perhaps NMU's of native packages do not
follow 1. However, consider this:
>> 1) dch --nmu adds +nmu1 for native packages
>> 2) +nmuX is already supported by devscripts and lintian.
>> 3) the developers reference also advocates adding +<codename>\d+. It
>> also advocates using exactly the same tar.gz file as already in the
>> archive.
>> 4) this is how debhelper, cdbs, and my packaging scripts handle it.
>>
>> Please also look at the discussion below, which led to
>> developers reference changing its recommendation.
>> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=437392
That link states that debhelper, cdbs, and (ahem) my scripts all
use the same convention for distinguishing native packages from non
native ones, namely, the presence of a hyphen in the version number.
I am suggesting, in this case, we *make* policy to explicitly
adopt the design that the dev-ref, devscripts, lintian, etc all
currently espouse; with perhaps the proviso that this be a should or
perhaps recommended bahaviour for a while. I consider having to look
into a .dsc file to see whether a package is a native NMU or a
non-native package to be a flaw large enough to warrant making policy
here, especially since debhelper and cdbs and devscripts all follow
this.
As far as policy is concerned, there is a strong indication
that if there is a - in the version, there is an upstream package, and
there is a debian revision, and there are also indications that a
non-native package needs to have orig.tar.gz/diff.gz.
Making a package seem like it is native and non native based on
whether the last upload was a NMU is bad, and it contradicts both policy
on version number format and the def ref recommendations.
> That said, the rest looks reasonable, but it would probably be useful
> to make sure that we're actually representing current practice.
Given that devscripts, lintian, and the dev-ref
all advocate or implement +nmu\d+, and that debhelper and cdbs look
at the hyphen for determining native vs non-native, I have tried to do
so. I think the proposed practice is strictly better than not
specifying any conventions, and where possible, Ihave tried to stick to
best practices as documented in the dev-ref to base policy on.
Having said that, there are a lot of packages that seem to still
use versions like m/\-\d+\.\d+$/, so perhaps we should be couching this
policy change as a 'recommends', and letting lintian warn about the
version number.
__> egrep '^Version: ' /var/lib/dpkg/available | wc -l
26797
__> egrep '^Version: ' /var/lib/dpkg/available | perl -nle 'm/\-\d+\.\d+$/ &&
print' | wc -l
2127
Of course, the majority of these packages are not native
packages, but it is hard to tell which are which.
manoj
--
"Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth." Lillian Hellman
Manoj Srivastava <sriva...@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/~srivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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