Devuan bug report logs - #629
lintian: false positive: "unknown-field Description" in source package

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From: "Devuan bug Tracking System" <owner@bugs.devuan.org>
To: Hannah Rittich <void@rittich.net>
Subject: bug#629 closed by Mark Hindley <mark@hindley.org.uk> (Closing)
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 <5f91537b-0fb4-a688-5401-a692fe355a7e@rittich.net>
X-Devuan-PR-Message: they-closed 629
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Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2021 14:42:21 +0000
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This is an automatic notification regarding your bug report
which was filed against the lintian package:

#629: lintian: false positive: "unknown-field Description" in source package

It has been closed by Mark Hindley <mark@hindley.org.uk>.

Their explanation is attached below along with your original report.
If this explanation is unsatisfactory and you have not received a
better one in a separate message then please contact Mark Hindley <mark@hindley.org.uk> by
replying to this email.


-- 
629: https://bugs.devuan.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=629
Devuan Bug Tracking System
Contact owner@bugs.devuan.org with problems

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From: Mark Hindley <mark@hindley.org.uk>

To: 629@bugs.devuan.org, 629-done@bugs.devuan.org

Subject: Closing

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2021 15:31:20 +0100

Control: tags -1 debian

On Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 03:52:35PM +0200, Where all about bugs in Devuan packages is reported wrote:
> Please close. That should have been sent to the Debian BTS.

Closing.

Mark

[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]

From: Hannah Rittich <void@rittich.net>

To: Devuan Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.devuan.org>

Subject: lintian: false positive: "unknown-field Description" in source package

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2021 15:34:53 +0200

Package: lintian
Version: 2.109.0~bpo11+1
Severity: normal

Adding a "Description" field in the source section of a control file
will cause lintian to issue the error "source: unknown-field Description".

The Debian Policy Manual [1] states that "in a source or binary control
file, the Description field contains a description of the binary package
[...]". Furthermore, deb-substvars allows to reference the description
field of the source package, using the variables ${source:Synopsis} and
${source:Extended-Description} [2]. Hence, adding a description to a
source package should be allowed. This field can be used to avoid
repetitions in the control file, as done by the abseil package [3],
which displays the said error message [4].

I would suggest to remove this warning for the "Description" field in
the source section.

[1]: 
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-description
[2]: 
https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/dpkg-dev/deb-substvars.5.en.html#source:Synopsis
[3]: https://sources.debian.org/src/abseil/0~20200923.3-3/debian/control/
[4]: https://lintian.debian.org/sources/abseil

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