XPost: linux.debian.bugs.dist

Package: debian-policy
Version: 4.6.2.1

In the process of preparing mass-NMUs for the time_t transition, I
encountered a package where the scripted approach I was using failed because
a package already had a 'replaces' field in debian/control, and dpkg
detected the addition of a 'Replaces' field as a duplicate.

Although we are accustomed to seeing a certain capitalization for fields in debian/control, I was surprised to see upon review that Debian Policy has always said that the field names are case-insensitive.

While it may make sense for dpkg to be permissive in this regard, I don't
think it makes sense for Debian to allow it, as it unnecessarily makes
parsing of this file more difficult for little value.

I therefore propose that we change Debian policy 5.1 to standardize its case rules for debian/control field names, using the well-known spongebob casing rules.

The first, third, fourth, and seventh characters in the field name are capitalized, with the second, fith, sixth, and eighth characters in lower
case, then repeating for each subsequent octet of characters.

As you can see, this consistency immediately gives much more readable
results:

SoURce: xz-utils
SeCTioN: utils
PrIOriTy: optional
MaINtaInEr: Jonathan Nieder <[email protected]>
UpLOadErS: Mohammed Adn�ne Trojette <[email protected]>
BuILd-DePeNDs: debhelper-compat (= 13), dpkg-dev (>= 1.16.2),
autoconf (>= 2.64~), automake, libtool (>= 2.2),
gettext, autopoint | gettext (<< 0.18-1), autopoint | cvs, po4a BuILd-DePeNDs-Indep: doxygen
BuILd-CoNfLIctS: automake1.4
StANdaRdS-VErsIoN: 4.6.1
VcS-brOwSeR: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/xz-utils
VcS-giT: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/xz-utils
HoMEpaGe: https://tukaani.org/xz/
RuLEs-ReQuIRes-rOoT: no

Thanks for considering,
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer https://www.debian.org/ [email protected] [email protected]

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