Bug#473439: debian-policy: Debian Policy inconsistent with Developer's Reference
Russ Allbery wrote:
Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk> writes:
Russ Allbery writes:
So as a purist, I would prefer `category'. `Area' works too since it
refers to an `area' in the FTP site.
I did a bit more research based on Osamu Aoki's excellent work.
Currently, these things are referred to using three different terms:
* dak calls them components.
* The current Debian Policy document calls them categories.
* The Social Contract calls them areas:
(...)
I think Policy should not attempt to make up its own terminology here, so
I'd like to change it to match either dak or the Social Contract. After
thinking about it for a bit, I favor going to the terminology of the
Social Contract with a minor modification (distribution areas instead of
just areas) in part because of Ian's point and in part because I think
it's meaningful to suppose that component refers to a technical capability
of dak whereas distribution area refers to a concept within Debian as a
project.
Here is a proposed patch to consistently use distribution area in Policy.
What do people think?
OTOH, the 'Release' file uses the dak terminology, and the name is
encoded on some tools.
The most visible is apt: apt_preferences(5) for pining use
the term "Component".
Because is not a urgent topic, and (IMO) there are some other
terminology problems about archive terminology, I thinks we
should wait and find a good terminology for all terms,
and having some agreement on transition plan
(dak, apt, debian reference,....)
BTW, I think a good starting point is to "standardize" the terms
in the Release file, after this, the solution of term problem
should be trivial.
ftp://ftp2.de.debian.org/debian-security/dists/stable/updates/Release
Origin: Debian
Label: Debian-Security
Suite: stable
Version: 4.0
Codename: etch
Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:13:30 UTC
Architectures: amd64 alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
Components: updates/main updates/contrib updates/non-free
Description: Debian 4.0 Security Updates
(...)
http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/Release
Origin: Ubuntu
Label: Ubuntu
Suite: intrepid
Version: 8.10
Codename: intrepid
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 2008 7:43:57 UTC
Architectures: amd64 hppa i386 ia64 lpia powerpc sparc
Components: main restricted universe multiverse
Description: Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10
(...)
Note: also apt is not consistent. About "suites"
(i.e. stable, testing, unstable)
apt-get(8):
(...)the version of the distribution or the *Archive name* (stable,
testing, unstable).
(...)
-t, --target-release: (...) using the specified *release string*
ciao
cate
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