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Bug#983657: marked as done (debian-policy: weaken manual page requirement)

Your message dated Wed, 18 Aug 2021 04:03:49 +0000
with message-id <E1mGCnt-000CWA-Qm@fasolo.debian.org>
and subject line Bug#983657: fixed in debian-policy 4.6.0.0
has caused the Debian Bug report #983657,
regarding debian-policy: weaken manual page requirement
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.

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-- 
983657: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=983657
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.debian.org with problems
--- Begin Message --- 
Package: debian-policy
Version: 4.5.1.0
Severity: wishlist

I think that the Debian policy is unreasonably strict in its manual page
requirement. While the common case is that manual pages are small and
should be included in the same package, occasionally they are numerous
and moving them to a separate package makes sense. Other times, there
already is a -common or -doc package and including them there would be
possible without increasing the package count. Doing so often allows
demoting dependencies to Build-Depends-Indep and thus reducing bootstrap
problems.

I therefore think that the policy should explicitly allow manual pages
to be shipped in a dependency. We can see that this already is
established practice from this non-exhaustive list:
 * aptitude -> aptitude-common
 * assaultcube -> assaultcube-data
 * aumix -> aumix-common
 * auto-multiple-choice -> auto-multiple-choice-common
 * binutils -> binutils-common
 * bitlbee -> bitlbee-common
 * bup -> bup-doc (recommends)
 * cpp-10 -> cpp-10-doc (no relation, license re
 * critterding -> crittering-common
 * grass-core -> grass-doc
 * x3270 -> 3270-common

Beyond this, I think that a manual page does not warrant a strong
dependency given that man-db is not essential. Rather a recommendation
should be strong enough. I'm not sure whether this view is universal
though.

So this is actually asking for two distinct things:
 * Allow moving manual pages to dependencies
 * Allow demoting such dependencies to recommends

A possible wording in ch-docs.rst could be:
 Each program, utility, and function should have an associated manual
-page included in the same package. It is suggested that all
+page included in the same package or one of its dependencies or
+recommended packages. It is suggested that all
 configuration files also have a manual page included as well. Manual
 pages for protocols and other auxiliary things are optional.

What do you think?

Helmut

--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message --- 
Source: debian-policy
Source-Version: 4.6.0.0
Done: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
debian-policy, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 983657@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> (supplier of updated debian-policy package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2021 20:06:42 -0700
Source: debian-policy
Architecture: source
Version: 4.6.0.0
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian Policy Editors <debian-policy@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>
Closes: 932696 944920 976301 983657 989581
Changes:
 debian-policy (4.6.0.0) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Sean Whitton ]
   * Policy: Allow manpages to be included in the dependencies of packages
     Wording: Helmut Grohne <helmut@subdivi.de>
     Seconded: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
     Seconded: Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org>
     Seconded: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>
     Closes: #983657
   * Policy: Support for subpaths in Vcs-Git
     Wording: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
     Seconded: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>
     Seconded: Mattia Rizzolo <mattia@debian.org>
     Closes: #932696
   * 4.4: Fix changelog format: needs an extra space before sign-off
     (Closes: #976301).
     Thanks to Anatoli Babenia for reporting the problem.
   * autopkgtest: Update variable name ADTTMP->AUTOPKGTEST_TMP (Closes: #989581).
     Thanks to Fabrice Bauzac-Stehly for reporting the problem.
 .
   [ Russ Allbery ]
   * Policy: Add new encouraged keyword, make keywords consistent
     Wording: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
     Seconded: Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>
     Seconded: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>
     Closes: #944920
   * Clarify that no package may install files in /usr/lib64.  The previous
     wording implied this restriction only applied to 64-bit packages.
   * Reserve the /etc/rcn.d directories for the init-system-helpers package
     rather than the sysvinit package, reflecting a change already made in
     the archive.
Checksums-Sha1:
 9d4ad492c2f1368d39e8654b2dae242309f0f896 2052 debian-policy_4.6.0.0.dsc
 cb9fd69c42d86abf47a47e86cb03191f3c54964b 546236 debian-policy_4.6.0.0.tar.xz
Checksums-Sha256:
 a946f1ab52de55b60822bba441fad31f793a9a8576ae1dae33720c033dba3e1b 2052 debian-policy_4.6.0.0.dsc
 9982f5718b8104963b1010238a13a3130ffa692cc9f9268feeb70dc4ae656111 546236 debian-policy_4.6.0.0.tar.xz
Files:
 5f4c982995def9ba579643f6ffc22ca8 2052 doc optional debian-policy_4.6.0.0.dsc
 c941bd543be3706cf56459c6e39a66bb 546236 doc optional debian-policy_4.6.0.0.tar.xz

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--- End Message ---
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