Bug#555743: dpkg-gencontrol: add support for Description:-s in the Source package stanza

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

Package: dpkg-dev
Version: 1.15.4.1
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/bin/dpkg-gencontrol

[ This topic has been discussed in the past at least by djpig, which I'm
  Cc-ing, but I can't find trace of it in the BTS. ]

It would be nice to have support for a Description field in the source
stanza of debian/control.

My rationale for that is manyfold:

0) (Starting intuition) most source package have a description per se,
   intuitively, that is the same description you'd find on the upstream
   homepage that made you download a specific software. Sure different
   binary packages can have different specific purpose, but it is in
   most cases possible to have a single all-encompassing description.

1) Various pieces of Debian infrastructure would benefit from
   source package descriptions, a few examples:
   - the PTS (currently lacking entirely per-source-package
     descriptions)
   - packages.d.o for its source pages
   - DDPO (currently implementing a custom heuristic to map per-binary
     descriptions to sources)

2) A frequent pattern in debian/control is as follows:

    Package: a
    Description: a is foo bar ...
     Project src is .... (COMMON TEXT)
     .
     In this package you find a

    Package: b
    Description: b is baz quux ...
     Project src is .... (COMMON TEXT)
     .
     In this package you find b

  Source descriptions can be used to factoring out COMMON TEXT in a
  single place.


I'm reporting this bug report against dpkg-dev because, AFAICT, it would
be simply possible to implement this wishlist as an expansion done by
dpkg-gencontrol at the end of the build. The expansion would simply copy
the COMMON TEXT from the source package description (if any) at the
beginning of each binary package description (possibly adding a
paragraph separator "\n.\n").  I've no idea if such a naive
implementation would have drawbacks elsewhere.

Of course, to fully exploit the advantages required for the use cases
above, changes in other infrastructure part would be needed (most
notably in all libraries parsing Sources). Still, implementing the above
in dpkg-dev would at least solve the issue (2) above, possibly paving
the way to a more gradual diffusion.

What is the stance of dpkg-dev maintainers on this?

TIA,
Cheers.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.31-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=it_IT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages dpkg-dev depends on:
ii  binutils                      2.20-3     The GNU assembler, linker and bina
ii  bzip2                         1.0.5-3    high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  dpkg                          1.15.4.1   Debian package management system
ii  libtimedate-perl              1.1900-1   Time and date functions for Perl
ii  lzma                          4.43-14    Compression method of 7z format in
ii  make                          3.81-7     An utility for Directing compilati
ii  patch                         2.5.9-5    Apply a diff file to an original
ii  perl [perl5]                  5.10.1-7   Larry Wall's Practical Extraction
ii  perl-modules                  5.10.1-7   Core Perl modules

Versions of packages dpkg-dev recommends:
ii  build-essential               11.4       Informational list of build-essent
ii  fakeroot                      1.14.3     Gives a fake root environment
ii  gcc [c-compiler]              4:4.3.4-1  The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-4.1 [c-compiler]          4.1.2-27   The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-4.3 [c-compiler]          4.3.4-6    The GNU C compiler
ii  gnupg                         1.4.10-2   GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii  gpgv                          1.4.10-2   GNU privacy guard - signature veri

Versions of packages dpkg-dev suggests:
ii  debian-keyring [debian-mainta 2009.08.27 GnuPG (and obsolete PGP) keys of D

-- no debconf information




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