Bug#543417: README.source patch system documentation requirements considered harmful
On Tue, 25 Aug 2009, Cyril Brulebois wrote:
> Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr> (25/08/2009):
> > 1) We should move to new source package format (3.0 etc) that remove
> > the need for patch system altogether.
>
> 1) That's not ready yet.
That's not true. It's not deployed on ftp-master but all the code needed
exists. But I can't do much more to convince ftpmasters to apply the
patch... I already offered to do all the work that merging my patch would
create them.
> > 3) If a package is lacking debian/README.source, then one should
> > expect that the source is ready to be used. If it not the case, even
> > an empty debian/README.source is better than none.
>
> 3) That's called noise.
I can certainly understand the point of view of Bill. It's not noise if
you assume that you should not need to do anything before being able to
work on the package... and if you do, you should find the required hint in
README.source. The existence of the file (even if empty) proves that the
package uses some patch system and that he should investigate a bit more.
That said, checking the build dependencies or debian/rules is quite quick
and gives you the same information in most cases when the package uses
common patch systems in a usual ways.
Cheers,
--
Raphaël Hertzog
Reply to: