On Fri, May 08, 2009 at 09:57:11PM +0100, Adam D. Barratt wrote:
> > Do all of the various programs that use Vcs fields support newlines in
> > the field value?  This is not a given; Policy says that newlines are
> > only allowed when specifically permitted by the specification for that
> > field.

This is no longer the case. Starting from policy 3.7.0 (see
/usr/share/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.txt.gz) all fields
are:
- on a logical single line ...
- ... that can be split over several _physical_ lines

As a consequence, Vcs-* fields must be supported as multiple lines all
other fields ... and yes, I'm aware that the initial implementation
did not support that, even though I've realized only now that it can
be a problem in practice.

> debcheckout certainly doesn't.  Given the initial authorship of the
> utility, I'd suggest that means that the field wasn't designed to be
> multi-line.

So no, this is no a valid excuse. It should be supported a physically
spread over multiple lines. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that it is a
problem, because I thought the various archive management tools used
to normalize on a single physical lines all fields. Nevertheless, the
implementation should be fixed to support Vcs-* fields split over
several physical lines, if they occurs in practice.

Cheers.

-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
z...@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
Dietro un grande uomo c'è ..|  .  |. Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
sempre uno zaino ...........| ..: |.... Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime



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