Bug#958229: Please document whether trailing commas are allowed

[Josh Triplett]

On Tue, May 05, 2020 at 06:21:41AM +0200, Guillem Jover wrote:
> On Mon, 2020-04-20 at 11:55:42 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > On Sun, 19 Apr 2020 23:12:28 +0200 Guillem Jover  wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2020-04-19 at 13:45:17 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > > > Package: dpkg-dev
> > > > Version: 1.19.7
> > > > Severity: normal
> > > > File: /usr/share/man/man5/deb-control.5.gz
> 
> > > I'm wondering what gave this false lead?
> > 
> > I looked for documentation on the file named debian/control, and I
> > remembered that dpkg uses the deb- abbreviation for many things, so I
> > guessed `man deb-control` and found a manpage.
> > 
> > Would you consider adding a note at the top of deb-control stating
> > something like "Debian source packages support additional features in
> > control files, which get eliminated when translating into the more
> > restrictive format for binary packages described here. For the control
> > format in source packages, see deb-src-control."
> 
> I've committed the following:
> 
>   
> 
> 
> And also polished and merged an old commit I had around:
> 
>   
> 
> 
> Hope, with these two that should have helped? If not I'm open to
> further clarification. :)

That helps greatly, thank you!

- Josh Triplett

Bug#958229: Please document whether trailing commas are allowed

[Guillem Jover]

On Mon, 2020-04-20 at 11:55:42 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Apr 2020 23:12:28 +0200 Guillem Jover  wrote:
> > On Sun, 2020-04-19 at 13:45:17 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > > Package: dpkg-dev
> > > Version: 1.19.7
> > > Severity: normal
> > > File: /usr/share/man/man5/deb-control.5.gz

> > I'm wondering what gave this false lead?
> 
> I looked for documentation on the file named debian/control, and I
> remembered that dpkg uses the deb- abbreviation for many things, so I
> guessed `man deb-control` and found a manpage.
> 
> Would you consider adding a note at the top of deb-control stating
> something like "Debian source packages support additional features in
> control files, which get eliminated when translating into the more
> restrictive format for binary packages described here. For the control
> format in source packages, see deb-src-control."

I've committed the following:

  


And also polished and merged an old commit I had around:

  


Hope, with these two that should have helped? If not I'm open to
further clarification. :)

Thanks,
Guillem

Bug#958229: Please document whether trailing commas are allowed

[Josh Triplett]

On Sun, 19 Apr 2020 23:12:28 +0200 Guillem Jover  wrote:
> On Sun, 2020-04-19 at 13:45:17 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > Package: dpkg-dev
> > Version: 1.19.7
> > Severity: normal
> > File: /usr/share/man/man5/deb-control.5.gz
> 
> > The deb-control manpage seemed like the right place to look to find out
> > if Debian control files can have trailing commas in comma-separated
> > fields (such as Depends). However, it didn't mention whether this was
> > allowed.
> 
> That man pages documents the control file for binary packages.

Ah.

> > (I'm hoping that it is, as that would improve the quality of diffs.)
> 
> This got documented in deb-src-control(5) in 1.19.0, I think at a
> similar time when this got requested to be clarified in debian-policy.
> 
>   
> 

That helps, thank you.

> I'm wondering what gave this false lead?

I looked for documentation on the file named debian/control, and I
remembered that dpkg uses the deb- abbreviation for many things, so I
guessed `man deb-control` and found a manpage.

Would you consider adding a note at the top of deb-control stating
something like "Debian source packages support additional features in
control files, which get eliminated when translating into the more
restrictive format for binary packages described here. For the control
format in source packages, see deb-src-control."

> (I have a pending and unfinished branch somewhere to move all the
> dependency syntax into its own man page, perhaps that would have
> helper here?)

Possibly.

- Josh Triplett

Bug#958229: Please document whether trailing commas are allowed

[Guillem Jover]

Hi!

On Sun, 2020-04-19 at 13:45:17 -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> Package: dpkg-dev
> Version: 1.19.7
> Severity: normal
> File: /usr/share/man/man5/deb-control.5.gz

> The deb-control manpage seemed like the right place to look to find out
> if Debian control files can have trailing commas in comma-separated
> fields (such as Depends). However, it didn't mention whether this was
> allowed.

That man pages documents the control file for binary packages.

> (I'm hoping that it is, as that would improve the quality of diffs.)

This got documented in deb-src-control(5) in 1.19.0, I think at a
similar time when this got requested to be clarified in debian-policy.

  


I'm wondering what gave this false lead?

(I have a pending and unfinished branch somewhere to move all the
dependency syntax into its own man page, perhaps that would have
helper here?)

Thanks,
Guillem

Bug#958229: Please document whether trailing commas are allowed

[Josh Triplett]

Package: dpkg-dev
Version: 1.19.7
Severity: normal
File: /usr/share/man/man5/deb-control.5.gz

The deb-control manpage seemed like the right place to look to find out
if Debian control files can have trailing commas in comma-separated
fields (such as Depends). However, it didn't mention whether this was
allowed.

(I'm hoping that it is, as that would improve the quality of diffs.)

-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers unstable-debug
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'unstable'), (1, 
'experimental-debug'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 5.5.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=C.UTF-8 
(charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages dpkg-dev depends on:
ii  binutils  2.34-6
ii  bzip2 1.0.8-2
ii  libdpkg-perl  1.19.7
ii  make  4.2.1-1.2
ii  patch 2.7.6-6
ii  perl  5.30.0-10
ii  tar   1.30+dfsg-7
ii  xz-utils  5.2.4-1+b1

Versions of packages dpkg-dev recommends:
ii  build-essential  12.8
ii  clang-10 [c-compiler]1:10.0.0-4
ii  fakeroot 1.24-1
ii  gcc [c-compiler] 4:9.2.1-3.1
ii  gcc-9 [c-compiler]   9.3.0-10
ii  gnupg2.2.20-1
ii  gpgv 2.2.20-1
pn  libalgorithm-merge-perl  

Versions of packages dpkg-dev suggests:
pn  debian-keyring  

-- no debconf information