Bug#383708: exim4-config: SPF-related documentation issues

[Ross Boylan]

On Sat, Aug 19, 2006 at 11:26:30PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 19, 2006 at 09:38:45PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
> > I'm afraid I don't know apt-listchanges.
> 
> Buggy as a june meadow and suboptimally maintained. Things can change
> soon, as apt-listchanges has just gotten a new maintainer.
> 
> >   But if you can confirm that changing the formatting to start with "
> >   *" solves the problem, I'll just do that.
> 
> Don't! NEWS.Debian is just as it is supposed to be.

My impression, which I think I got from an earlier apt-listchanges
maintainer, is that NEWS.Debian is supposed to have individual entries
in the same format as changelog.Debian.  Whether that implies "*" I'm
not sure; whether this is just a little secret or part of policy I'm
not sure.

> 
> The itemization is only meant for changelogs, NEWS.Debian is a text
> format.
> 
> I have reported a bug against apt-listchanges reporting this, see
> #383803.
> 
> > So what you're proposing is to merge all the NEWS files?  Then please take this
> > up with Marc, he's the one in charge for such things.
> 
> That is not going to happen. I don't think it is our job to work
> around broken optional tools. Sorry.

As a practical matter, if the NEWS.Debian files don't work with
apt-listchanges, a lot of people will miss the NEWS.  In the
short-run, this seems a pretty good argument for working with
apt-listchanges as it exists.

Also, as a user I expect that all binaries with the same source will
have the same NEWS.Debian, so I won't necessarily check the separate
NEWS.Debian.  If others are like me, it means the NEWS may escape
human as well as automatic tools.

In the longer-run, apt-listchanges, package maintainers, and policy
should all agree on what the deal is (format of NEWS.Debian and
relation between packages from the same source).  Since #383803 has
been set to wishlist severity, it seems the apt-listchanges maintainer
does not agree the current behavior is a bug.

To repeat, I'm not sure my diagnosis of the problem (apt-listchanges
requires all packages with the same source to have the same
NEWS.Debian) is correct.  There is at least one competing explanation
(missing "*") which has the same character, namely is it an exim
problem or an apt-listchanges problem?

Ross