Bug#501927: debian_bundle fails with empty lines containing a space

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

tags 501927 + patch
clone 501927 -1
retitle -1 please be more clear about stanza separators for debian/control
reassign -1 debian-policy
thanks

On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 06:50:03PM +0200, Siegfried Gevatter (RainCT) wrote:
> Parsing hundreds of debian/control files from REVU (Ubuntu's "New
> Package Review Platform") using debian_support.PackageFile, I've found
> out that it failed with many of them have they had a space between
> different Package stanzas (that is, " \n" instead of just "\n").

> Therefore, line «if line == '\n':» (line 110, function __iter__)
> should be «if line.strip(' ') == '\n':» instead, so that it handles
> that case gracefully.

[ This last paragraph of yours is actually the patch ]

Interestingly enough, the Debian policy is ambiguous about what are
the paragraph separators in debian/control. Section 5.1 first states
that blank lines are separators (which is usually interpreted as "\n"
alone):

     A control file consists of one or more paragraphs of fields[1].
     The paragraphs are separated by blank lines.

Then, later on, it seems to allow for other blank characters,
mentioning spaces and tabs:

     Blank lines, or lines consisting only of spaces and tabs, are not
     allowed within field values or between fields - that would mean a
     new paragraph.

If generic blanks (space, tabs, ...) are the intended separators I've
no objection in fixing the bug as you propose. Cloning/reassigning
this bug to policy, as it needs to be discussed there as well.

Thanks for your bugreport!
Cheers.

-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli -*- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
I'm still an SGML person,this newfangled /\ All one has to do is hit the
XML stuff is so ... simplistic  -- Manoj \/ right keys at the right time
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