git, debian/<version> tags, dgit - namespace proposal

[Ian Jackson]

Currently, the debian/<version> git tag namespace is used by a number
of different tools, and can mean different things in different
packages and sometimes even different things for the same package in
different repos or trees.

dgit produces, and the dgit git server requires, tags of this form,
which refer to the dgit branch, which is roughly what some people call
a `patches-applied packaging branch'.

So far, dgit has been using debian/<version> for this.  But this is a
problem because this tag namespace is used for other purposes and has
no clear meaning.  I'm currently working on dgit native push support
for users of 3.0-quilt+git-buildpackage, where this is particularly
bad because it would involve dgit making two tags with the same
name (!)

Having considered things, I think it would be best for dgit to concede
this area of namespace for all the existing uses.  Declaring those
existing uses wrong, just because they're varied and and mutually
inconsistent, is not very helpful.  Consequently I need a new
namespace.  I don't want to put `dgit' in the name because the format
is not specific to dgit.  It is simply the result of `dpkg-source -x'
(only without the .pc directory which dpkg-source sometimes produces).


I am currently thinking that dgit would start to use the tag namespace

   Debian/<version>

instead.  These tags would always refer to a

  Patches-applied packaging branch (where applicable containing a
  patch to add or update .gitignore).

For other distros, I would likewise capitalise just the first
character of the distro name (with `ucfirst' in Perl).  So
`Ubuntu/<version>'.  <version> is translated as specified in DEP-14.


So this message is:

* A request for anyone to say if they know of a reason I shouldn't do
  this.

* A declaration (currently, tentative) of intent to claim this part of
  the git tag namespace.

* A proposal to update DEP-14 to declare that "vendor" in DEP-14
  should start with a lowercase letter, and ideally, to reserve the
  corresponding starts-with-uppercase tags for dgit.


Thanks,
Ian.