Hi! On Sun, 2026-05-10 at 15:39:38 +0100, Sean Whitton wrote: > Nilesh Patra [10/May 1:04pm +0530] wrote: > > diff --git a/policy/ch-controlfields.rst b/policy/ch-controlfields.rst > > index 69467c4..f4d5fe9 100644 > > --- a/policy/ch-controlfields.rst > > +++ b/policy/ch-controlfields.rst > > @@ -1381,8 +1381,10 @@ A Debian installation can combine packages from > > multiple architectures. > > The ``Multi-Arch`` field enables individual packages to declare their > > support for this feature, and influences the way dependencies are > > handled. It can be declared in binary package sections of a source > > -package template control file and in binary package control files. The > > -permitted field values are ``no`` (default), ``foreign``, ``same`` and > > +package template control file and in binary package control files. > > +``Multi-Arch`` must not be used for udebs, as these semantics are out > > +of scope for the Debian installer. > > +The permitted field values are ``no`` (default), ``foreign``, ``same`` and > > ``allowed``. Their semantics are described in the following sections. > > > > .. _s-f-Multi-Arch-no: > > Thanks. Helmut, do you agree with using a "must not" here?
Right, actually after having pondered a bit about this for whether to emit a warning, error or nothing in dpkg-gencontrol, my conclusion is that while I still agree this is not in scope, it should have no ill effect except for increasing the .udeb size, so I think a warning is enough (and that's what I've updated the patch to do now), and as such for Debian Policy a must seems indeed too strong. So I rescind my second for now. :) Also having briefly checked the debian-installer Packages file for amd64, I see only a handful of packages for which the field has been explicitly set by the maintainer. This is the list for amd64, but probably incomplete across all arches: fonts-freefont-udeb fonts-knda-udeb fonts-lohit-guru-udeb fonts-taml-udeb fonts-sil-abyssinica-udeb fonts-sil-padauk-udeb fonts-thai-tlwg-udeb fonts-ukij-uyghur-udeb pwgen-udeb Thanks, Guillem
From feb8794184d9a634f8a1611e02d7eb0d531b6e86 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Guillem Jover <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 10 May 2026 19:38:39 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] dpkg-gencontrol: Remove and warn about Multi-Arch field on udeb packages The udeb packages are intended to be minimal, and on Debian these target only the Debian Installer, where multi-arch is out of scope, but the only ill effect of having this field is the increase in size, which we handle with the field removal. Proposed-by: Nilesh Patra <[email protected]> --- scripts/dpkg-gencontrol.pl | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff --git a/scripts/dpkg-gencontrol.pl b/scripts/dpkg-gencontrol.pl index f07b9b9ea..0c4040716 100755 --- a/scripts/dpkg-gencontrol.pl +++ b/scripts/dpkg-gencontrol.pl @@ -346,6 +346,10 @@ my $pkg_type = $pkg->{'Package-Type'} || if ($pkg_type eq 'udeb') { delete $fields->{'Package-Type'}; delete $fields->{'Homepage'}; + if (delete $fields->{'Multi-Arch'}) { + warning(g_("package '%s' (type %s) contains out of scope %s field"), + $oppackage, $pkg_type, 'Multi-Arch'); + } } else { for my $f (qw(Subarchitecture Kernel-Version Installer-Menu-Item)) { warning(g_("%s package '%s' with udeb specific field %s"), -- 2.53.0
