Your message dated Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:44:51 -0700
with message-id <87o9rlx51o....@iris.silentflame.com>
and subject line Closing inactive Policy bugs
has caused the Debian Bug report #465140,
regarding Clarify when alternatives may be used
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact ow...@bugs.debian.org
immediately.)
--
465140: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=465140
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact ow...@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.7.3.0
Severity: normal
Policy 10.1 isn't really clear on when to use alternatives:
/---
| Two different packages must not install programs with different functionality
| but with the same filenames. (The case of two programs having the same
| functionality but different implementations is handled via "alternatives" or
| the "Conflicts" mechanism.
\---
Please specify "same API" as well as "same functionality".
A discussion [1] on debian-devel about libtranslate-bin and translate suggested
that alternatives should be used only when, in case of libraries, the same API
is provided, no matter if they offer more or less the same functionalities.
Kindly,
David
[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2008/02/msg00372.html
--
. ''`. Debian maintainer | http://wiki.debian.org/DavidPaleino
: :' : Linuxer #334216 --|-- http://www.hanskalabs.net/
`. `'` GPG: 1392B174 ----|---- http://snipr.com/qa_page
`- 2BAB C625 4E66 E7B8 450A C3E1 E6AA 9017 1392 B174
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
control: user debian-pol...@packages.debian.org
control: usertag -1 +obsolete
control: tag -1 +wontfix
Russ Allbery and I did a round of in-person bug triage at DebConf17 and
we are closing this bug as inactive.
The reasons for closing fall into the following categories, from most
frequent to least frequent:
- issue is appropriate for Policy, there is a consensus on how to fix
the problem, but preparing the patch is very time-consuming and no-one
has volunteered to do it, and we do not judge the issue to be
important enough to keep an open bug around;
- issue is appropriate for Policy but there does not yet exist a
consensus on what should change, and no recent discussion. A fresh
discussion might allow us to reach consensus, and the messages in the
old bug are unlikely to help very much; or
- issue is not appropriate for Policy.
If you feel this bug is still relevant and want to restart the
discussion, you can re-open the bug. However, please consider instead
opening a new bug with a message that summarises and condenses the
previous discussion, updates the report for the current state of Debian,
and makes clear exactly what you think should change.
A lot of these old bugs have long side tangents and numerous messages,
and that old discussion is not necessarily helpful for figuring out what
Debian Policy should say today.
--
Sean Whitton
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
--- End Message ---
