Hi Russ,
I don't think this is a bug in Lintian.
The source tarball xfonts-jmk_3.0.orig.tar.gz contains an empty
directory 'neep/ascii/':
$ dget
http://deb.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xfonts-jmk/xfonts-jmk_3.0-22.dsc
$ tar tf xfonts-jmk_3.0.orig.tar.gz
. . .
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/Makefile
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/Makefile.chardesc
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/Makefile.fonts
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/Makefile.fonts.in
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/Makefile.neep
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/ascii/ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/fragments/
jmk-x11-fonts-3.0/neep/fragments/Makefile
. . .
That triggers the tag when the file index for the orig tarball is examined:
https://salsa.debian.org/lintian/lintian/blob/master/checks/cruft.pm#L450-451
> but a patch in the quilt series adds a file to that directory. I believe
> this addresses the concerns described in that tag, and will ensure
> that any view of the source package will contain that directory.
The comment in the tag description [1] about adding a placeholder to
the directory "as needed" applies to upstream before they ship the
orig tarball. Adding placeholder solely to your debianized sources
will not help.
With upstream defunct, wouldn't a Lintian override, or perhaps even a
repacking of the source, be good options for you?
Please feel free to close the bug if you agree with the beginning of
this letter. :)
Kind regards,
Felix
[1] https://lintian.debian.org/tags/source-contains-empty-directory.html
