Package: gzip
Version: 1.3.12-5
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
I've been going through Essential looking for package descriptions
that were in need of a review. This one's on the "Severity: minor"
end of the list (see #482098, #482666, #458029, #483023, #483221,
#484002, #484172).
# Package: gzip
# Description: The GNU compression utility
# This is the standard GNU file compression utility, which is also the default
# compression tool for Debian. It typically operates on files with names
# ending in '.gz'.
# .
# This package can also decompress '.Z' files created with 'compress'.
There are a couple of stylesheet issue here (DevRef recommends
against leading capitalisation and articles in synopses), but more
significantly, the wording confuses /bin/gzip with gzip_*.deb
throughout:
* It claims that the package "is" the utility/compression tool. No,
it "provides" that executable, and a handful of others.
* The second paragraph explicitly states that the package can
decompress things, and that just isn't true.
* And yet reading "it" as /bin/gzip is still awkward, because that
executable _doesn't_ typically operate on files with names
ending in ".gz":
$ gzip foo.txt.gz
gzip: foo.txt.gz already has .gz suffix -- unchanged
Fixing this (and adopting the debian-l10n-english "house style" for
some details of punctuation):
Description: GNU compression utilities
This package provides the standard GNU file compression utility, gzip,
which is also the default compression tool for Debian.
.
The gzip program compresses a file and adds ".gz" to its name; gunzip
can decompress both these and the ".Z" files created by compress. Other
tools provided include zcat, zdiff, zgrep, and zmore.
(Or should it perhaps explain gzip, gunzip and zcat, then refer to
miscellaneous unnamed shellscripts?)
By the way, not worth a separate bugreport, but while you're looking
at that control file: why does gzip still express a dependency on
debianutils 1.6? Do you really support mixed Bo/Lenny systems?
-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.25.custom
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages gzip depends on:
ii debianutils 2.28.4 Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii libc6 2.7-10 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
gzip recommends no packages.
-- no debconf information
--
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)
diff -ru gzip-1.3.12.pristine/debian/control gzip-1.3.12/debian/control
--- gzip-1.3.12.pristine/debian/control 2008-06-04 17:20:07.000000000 +0100
+++ gzip-1.3.12/debian/control 2008-06-04 17:25:33.000000000 +0100
@@ -13,12 +13,13 @@
Depends: debianutils (>= 1.6)
Essential: yes
Suggests: less
-Description: The GNU compression utility
- This is the standard GNU file compression utility, which is also the default
- compression tool for Debian. It typically operates on files with names
- ending in '.gz'.
+Description: GNU compression utilities
+ This package provides the standard GNU file compression utility, gzip,
+ which is also the default compression tool for Debian.
.
- This package can also decompress '.Z' files created with 'compress'.
+ The gzip program compresses a file and adds ".gz" to its name; gunzip
+ can decompress both these and the ".Z" files created by compress. Other
+ tools provided include zcat, zdiff, zgrep, and zmore.
Package: gzip-win32
Architecture: all
