[Debian-l10n-devel] Priority information in packages file is not reliable

[s3v]

Package: ftp.debian.org


Dear developer,
there is some divergence between priority information in Packages.xz file
and priority field in binary .deb file.

E.g.

(from Packages.xz)

Package: allure
Version: 0.8.3.0-3
Installed-Size: 36600
Maintainer: Debian Haskell Group <pkg-haskell-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
[...]
Section: games
Priority: extra
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(from binary package)

$ dpkg-deb -I allure_0.8.3.0-3_amd64.deb | grep Priority
Priority: optional
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(from Packages.xz)

Package: 4digits
Source: 4digits (1.1.4-1)
Version: 1.1.4-1+b1
Installed-Size: 679
Maintainer: Yongzhi Pan <panyongzhi at gmail.com>
[...]
Section: games
Priority: optional
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(from binary package)

$ dpkg -I 4digits_1.1.4-1+b1_amd64.deb | grep Priority
Priority: extra
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

more context at #928992 [1].

I think content of Packages.xz file does need to be fully reliable because
this file is parsed by DDTP [2] for:
- obtaining the priority of Debian packages
- creating a numeric priority on a basis of "official" priority and some
  other internal criteria
- populating his database with this information
- automatically fetching package descriptions with highest priority
- providing these descriptions to translators

Currently, results presented at the end of this workflow are not what they
seem and translators spend their time to translate descriptions that do
actually have priority lower than what DDTP says.
Please, can you provide a Packages.xz file that rightly reflects the binary
package priority?

I hope this is the proper place for reporting this issue; if not, please
redirect me on the right way.
Moreover, I have no idea about the process that does build packages file, maybe
this behaviour is expected?
If so, please adjust the severity or close this bug as well.

Thanks a lot for your work.

Kind regards.


[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=928992
[2] http://ddtp2.debian.net/stats/stats-sid.html