On Tue, 31 Mar 2009, Russ Allbery wrote: > > Keeping the X- prefix when copying fields would mean we could never > > invent new fields without forcing a mass rename of fields once they are > > official. Or we could not add official fields if we use an old dpkg-dev. > > Indeed, that's a serious problem. > > I believe this patch should be rejected and behavior left as-is, with > users not told to add an extra X- to their fields. Conflicts can be dealt > with as they come up.
In this case, Nils came to us because they add an "X-Buildinfo" field containing some private VCS information and they didn't want to have the warning generated by dpkg-deb (in order to not miss some other important warnings). His request made sense. After having accepted the patch, I wondered where it should be documented and Nils pointed me to the policy section. So I asked him to submit a bug here. I fail to see any problem with telling people outside of Debian that they can freely use "X-" fields for their private use. You might want to say to DD that are inventing new fields, that they should not make them start with X- if they ever expect it to be standardized. Cheers, -- Raphaël Hertzog Contribuez à Debian et gagnez un cahier de l'admin Debian Lenny : http://www.ouaza.com/wp/2009/03/02/contribuer-a-debian-gagner-un-livre/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
