[Please CC me on replies.] ftp.debian.org has a few outstanding bugs requesting new archive sections, such as "javascript" and "rust". Discussions on IRC #debian-devel led to the mail at https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2015/05/msg00287.html , which identifies a few different packages that hard-code section names and descriptions.
Long-term, we should likely introduce a new repository metadata file listing archive sections and descriptions (including translations); that would allow software dealing with the archive to automatically handle new sections, as well as repositories that want to introduce their own sections. In the meantime, however, introducing a new section requires updating a half-dozen pieces of software, such as aptitude, synaptic, packagekit, lintian, and vim. Does it seem reasonable to attempt to introduce these new sections before the release, so that these pieces of software in stable can successfully work with upcoming sections that will appear in testing/unstable/backports? I'd be willing to write appropriate bug reports and patches for the various packages listed in the mail above. I (and ftpmaster) would like to get input from the release team if they see negative effects on the release from such a change. - Josh Triplett
