Guy Maor writes ("Re: Bug#4454: `Distribution: unstable' but it goes into project/experimental"): ... > The override files instructed dinstall to put debiandoc-sgml into > experimental, overriding what was in the .changes file.
Ergh. > This problem will recur whenever a package moves from one section or > distribution to another. dinstall cannot handle this case because it > doesn't know where to look for the older version to unlink it. Couldn't it look in the override file ? > Instead it assumes that the .changes file listed incorrect sections and > distributions (a fairly frequent occurrence actually), and installs the > package into the old location. Since package movements are much more > rare than .changes files with incorrect locations, dinstall's assumption > is the right one. I think that we should try to make .changes files right. I think the new source format will help here. (dchanges made it very easy to say `Distribution: unstable' without thinking.) > dinstall could, alternatively, require human intervention in this case. > But it was written to run as automatically as possible. It will make a > recoverable error, which is usually the right thing to do, rather than > do nothing at all. Thanks. > A third alternative is to turn the `Override file lists section as > ... overriding your choice of ...' message into an error, so the package > would get rejected. But this is illogical as it would require MORE > intervention: maintainers would be forced to reupload new .changes > files and the distribution maintainer would still have to edit the > override file. > > So I would like to close this bug, as it's not a bug. Of couse, you > may be able to suggest a fourth alternative which is better. Could you report the bad Distribution as a bug, if it turns out to be true ? Ian.