Package: debian-policy Version: 3.9.4.0 At present, 213 packages fail to build using pbuilder, because they contain a debian/control file starting with comment lines, then a blank line, then the actual contents. This is caused by gnome-pkg-tools, as described in further detail in #684503.
At present, policy states (in 5.2) that blank lines separate paragraphs,
comments are discarded, and that the *first* paragraph contains essential
package information (Policy 5.2).
This raises the question whether an empty paragraph *is a paragraph*. I had
initiated some discussion on d-devel [1], with no uniform opinion about this. In
order not to base any outcome on philosophical discussions, I suggest to
consider RFC822 as the technical base: This defines a message as
message = fields *( CRLF *text ) ; Everything after
; first null line
; is message body
with blank lines (CRLF) only being permitted after the initial fields.
Note that, however, apparently only pbuilder enforces such a strict
interpretation. Other tools, including dpkg and lintian, appear to interpret the
"first paragraph" as the "first non-empty paragraph."
Many thanks,
Michael
[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2012/10/msg00026.html
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