Source: debian-policy Version: 4.7.2.0 This is a follow-up to https://bugs.debian.org/910783 which downgraded doc-base to a "may" with version 4.4.1.0 in 2019. However, Lintian still emits an info warning about the lack of doc-base registration. [1]. doc-base was originally recommended in version 3.6.2 in 2005. [2] [3]
I believe that several Debian Developers are aware of doc-base, either because it is mentioned in Debian Policy, or because of the Lintian info tag, or because the doc-base files are existing in packages or in packaging templates. I suspect that a typical Debian user who does not work on .deb packages would be unaware of doc-base. Despite its prevalence in Debian packages, I am guessing that few Debian Developers have ever actually **used** doc-base. doc-base's client list [3] claims that yelp and khelpcenter support doc-base. yelp hasn't supported doc-base since 2009 (as mentioned in yelp's debian/changelog). It does not appear that khelpcenter does either. All the other clients have very low popcon. The highest is dwww with 427 reported installs. The about section [4] for doc-base is interesting. doc-base was created in 1998. If I interpret it correctly, it was created because Debian Developers couldn't agree on a single way to view HTML documentation. There were 4 suggested systems (which are the 4 clients other than yelp & khelpcenter). doc-base was created so that Debian packaged docs could be registered in all 4 of those systems. This frankly doesn't feel like the way almost anyone reads HTML system docs now. The inclusion of doc-base in Debian Policy forces proactive Debian contributors to spend time writing debian/*doc-base files. If those files aren't really being used, this is a waste of space and a waste of Debian contributor time and effort. Therefore, I recommend that we stop mentioning doc-base in Debian Policy, allowing the Lintian info tag to be removed. Practically, I'd imagine if that happened, a Lintian warning might be added to remove doc-base files since doc-base would no longer be a Debian project goal. [1] https://lintian.debian.org/tags/possible-documentation-but-no-doc-base-registration.html [2] https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.html [3] https://bugs.debian.org/169399 [3] https://wiki.debian.org/doc-base#doc-base_clients [4] https://wiki.debian.org/doc-base#Debian_doc-base_Manual Thank you, Jeremy Bícha
