Hi, there are a few .dsc files that dont have a Format: field, the few that i found all had a Standards-Version: 3.0.1, but some packages of that same Standards-Version do have a Format: field in the .dsc file, i tried to find more details of theis field.
man dpkg-source refers to it being described in the packaging manual which is obsolete, parts of the packaging manual have been moved to policy. >From the policy manual, C.3 Source packages as archives Debian source control file - .dsc This file contains a series of fields, identified and separated just like the fields in the control file of a binary package. The fields are listed below; their syntax is described above, in Control files and their fields (from old Packaging Manual), Appendix D. Source Version Maintainer Binary Architecture Build-Depends et al. (source package interrelationships) Standards-Version Files There is a link to appendix D, where i find mention of _a_ Format: field D.2.17 Format This field occurs in .changes files, and specifies a format revision for the file. The format described here is version 1.5. The syntax of the format value is the same as that of a package version number except that no epoch or Debian revision is allowed - see Version numbering, Chapter 4. But the Format: field of the .changes file mustnt caryover to the .dsc file becasue my last upload had .changes;Format: 1.7 and .dsc;Format:1.0 So was the Format field in the .dsc option at one stage, is it still optional, is it documented ? This also makes me wonder, when a new release is made do we specify that all packages must be newer than a specific standards version, or do we let all the cruft in ? Confused Glenn
