Package: debian-policy
X-Debbugs-CC: debian-d...@lists.debian.org, ftpmas...@debian.org,
jspri...@debian.org, jo...@debian.org
Dear Policy Editors,
it appears that currently there is no requirement for d/control to
stay the same before and after a build. However, many things require
this to be the case, and ftp-master also requires this in their
reject-faq [1].
Below is a minimal patch, mostly as a discussion starter. I've
ponderred if listing examples of things breaking would be good, but
decided against it for the policy text.
This change suggestion started when Jochen et al discovered that the
"pcp" package currently rewrites its d/control file, which causes
rebuilds of the in-archive package to produce a different result. [2]
Thanks,
Chris
[1] https://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html "debian/control breakage #2"
[2] https://reproduce.debian.net/amd64/#pcp and https://bugs.debian.org/1102289
(CC'ed people I expect to be interested.)
diff --git i/policy/ch-controlfields.rst w/policy/ch-controlfields.rst
index 3151816..cffca22 100644
--- i/policy/ch-controlfields.rst
+++ w/policy/ch-controlfields.rst
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ Debian source package template control files --
``debian/control``
The ``debian/control`` file contains the most vital (and
version-independent) information about the source package and about the
-binary packages it creates.
+binary packages it creates. The file must stay unchanged when building
+a package.
The first stanza of the control file contains information about the
source package in general. The subsequent stanzas each describe a
