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>1.2. The intention of Lintian</A
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><P
> Packaging has become complicated—not because dpkg is
complicated (indeed, dpkg-deb is very simple to use) but
because of the high requirements of our policy. If a developer
releases a new package, she has to consider hundreds of
guidelines to make the package `policy compliant.'
</P
><P
> All parts of our policy have been introduced by the same procedure:
Some developer has a good idea how to make packages more `unique' with
respect to a certain aspect—then the idea is discussed and a policy
proposal is prepared. If we have a consensus about the policy change,
it's introduced in our manuals.
</P
><P
> Therefore, our policy is <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>not</I
></SPAN
> designed to
make life harder for the maintainers! The intention is to make
Debian the best Linux distribution out there. With this in
mind, lots of policy changes are discussed on the mailing
lists each week.
</P
><P
> But changing the policy is only a small part of the story:
Just having some statement included in the manual does not
make Debian any better. What's needed is for that policy to
become `real life,' i.e.,
it's <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>implemented</I
></SPAN
> in our packages. And
this is where Lintian comes in: Lintian checks packages and
reports possible policy violations. (Of course, not everything
can be checked mechanically — but a lot of things can
and this is what Lintian is for.)
</P
><P
>Thus, Lintian has the following goals:</P
><P
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STYLE="list-style-type: disc"
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>To give us some impression of the `gap'
between theory (written policy) and praxis (current state of
implementation).</I
></SPAN
>
</P
><P
> From the results of the first two Lintian checks I
implemented, I see that there is a big need to make this
gap smaller. Introducing more policy aspects is worthless
unless they are implemented. We first should fix packages
to comply with current policy before searching for new
ways to make policy more detailed. (Of course, there are
also important policy changes that need to be introduced
— but this is not what's meant here.)
</P
></LI
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><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
> To make us re-think about certain aspects of our policy.
</I
></SPAN
>
</P
><P
> For example, it could turn out that some ideas that once
sounded great in theory are hard to implement in all our
packages — in which case we should rework this
aspect of policy.
</P
></LI
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><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
> To show us where to concentrate our efforts in order to
make Debian a higher quality distribution.
</I
></SPAN
>
</P
><P
> Most release requirements will be implemented through
policy. Lintian reports provide an easy way to
compare <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>all</I
></SPAN
> our packages against
policy and keep track of the fixing process by watching
bug reports. Note, that all this can be
done <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>automatically</I
></SPAN
>.
</P
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><P
><SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="emphasis"
>To make us avoid making the same mistakes all over again.</I
></SPAN
>
</P
><P
> Being humans, it's natural for us to make errors. Since we
all have the ability to learn from our mistakes, this is
actually no big problem. Once an important bug is
discovered, a Lintian check could be written to check for
exactly this bug. This will prevent the bug from appearing
in any future revisions of any of our packages.
</P
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