Package: tech-ctte Control: tags 737634 patch Control: block 737634 by -1 Hi.
I would like the Technical Committee to explicitly use its power in Constitution 6.1 (1) "Decide on any matter of technical policy" to decide that: dpkg-source should be able to build "3.0 (native)" source packages with a non-native version number. Note that this does not require a supermajority - a simple majority will do, since this is "the behaviour of non-experimental package building tools". A 10-year-old patch is available to implement the change. I would also ideally like the TC to explicitly give advice that they think this change is appropriate for trixie. Scope ----- We are talking here precisely about the behaviour of dpkg-source when the version number has a hyphen, and the source format is "3,0 (native)". Currently dpkg-source -b it fails with an error. Note ethat we are not debating (any longer) whether "3.0 (native)" packages with a non-native version number are incorrect. That was settled in 2022 by TC decison: the answer is "yes, they are fine". The remaining problem is simply that dpkg-source still rejects them. History ------- In 2014 dpkg-source was changed to reject these source packages at build time. Quickly, a bug was filed, https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737634 In that bug several people request the previous behaviour be restored and give practical explanations why they want to do things that way. There are a variety of use cases presented. In 2022, the matter was discussed (along with many other things) by the Technical Committee. The TC ruling can be found here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737634#107 The full discussion (which includes other matters too) is here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1007717 The TC decided to agree with us on the substance. But the wording in the resolution is unfortuante. The TC say that there is nothing wrong with this situation, that dpkg-source rejects. But they then say only "We suggest that the wontfix tag on #737634 be reconsidered". The maintainer did not respond to this TC decision. Nor did they respond to a followup message in January 2024. Current situation ----------------- The Technical Committee has declared what Debian's technical policy is in this area. However, the dpkg-srouce maintainer has failed to align the software with Debian policy. As I understand from https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737634#112 Ubuntu have patched their version of dpkg-source to relax this restriction. One consequence is that Ubuntu now contains source packages that cannot be edited and then rebuild with upstream Debian tooling. There is this patch from Adam Conrad: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=737634#102 I haven't tried applying it, but I expect that if it doesn't work, the fix will be about as simple. This issue means that I have many packages that are still using 1.0 source format, despite its several important behavioural flaws, when they could be using 3.0. It also greatly complicates recommending good packaging workflows. So I would like to see this resolved. I appreciate that the relationship between the dpkg maintainer and the TC is poor. But, the TC is the appropriate venue for this decision. The maintainer has clearly indicated by their non-responses in 2022 and again in 2024 that they don't intend to reconsider this question. Given that all the technical matters were already discussed exhaustively in #1007717, I'm hoping that the TC can make a decision fairly quickly. Thanks, Ian. -- Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> These opinions are my own. Pronouns: they/he. If I emailed you from @fyvzl.net or @evade.org.uk, that is a private address which bypasses my fierce spamfilter.
