Debian Bug report logs - #980825
debian-policy: Historical sign off dates in d/changelog and "single digit" day of the month

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Package: debian-policy; Maintainer for debian-policy is Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>; Source for debian-policy is src:debian-policy (PTS, buildd, popcon).

Reported by: Niels Thykier <[email protected]>

Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2021 21:21:01 UTC

Severity: minor

Merged with 971977

Found in versions debian-policy/4.5.0.0, debian-policy/4.5.0.3

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Report forwarded to [email protected], Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>:
Bug#980825; Package debian-policy. (Fri, 22 Jan 2021 21:21:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Niels Thykier <[email protected]>:
New Bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>. (Fri, 22 Jan 2021 21:21:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Niels Thykier <[email protected]>
To: Debian BTS submit <[email protected]>
Subject: debian-policy: Historical sign off dates in d/changelog and "single digit" day of the month
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2021 22:15:24 +0100
Package: debian-policy
Version: 4.5.0.0
Severity: minor

Hi,

This is a bit of a nit pick, but I think it is a special case worth
mentioning in Policy.

I am basing this on
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#debian-changelog-debian-changelog
where the date format of the changelog signoff line is described as:


> The date has the following format 7 (compatible and with the same semantics of RFC 2822 and RFC 5322):
> 
> day-of-week, dd month yyyy hh:mm:ss +zzzz
> 
> where:
> 
>     day-of-week is one of: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
> 
>     dd is a one- or two-digit day of the month (01-31)
> [...]

I find that "single-digit day" is a bit underspecified here in.
Basically there are two options, either the leading zero is replaced
with a leading space or the leading zero is simply omitted.

Sadly, neither RFC 2822 nor RFC 5322 are helpful in clearing this up as
they both assume "two-digit" days.

My understanding is that the reason for "single-digit" days is to
support historical changelogs, where Debian omitted the leading zero.
The samples I have found[1], the leading zero is replaced with a single
space as in:

>  -- Joey Hess <[email protected]>  Thu,  3 Dec 1998 23:31:56 -0800



This is relatively prevalent.  As an (un)scientific example, this
alternative variant accounts for:

 * ~21% of all signoff dates in debhelper (202/927)
 * ~10% of all signoff dates in apt (49/480)


I applaud policy for highlighting the correct and preferred example, so
I propose that we restrain this amendment to a footnote (or another note
of equal low importance) that informs the reader that this alternative
format may be found in older changelog entries and that this variant is
still accepted but that the two-digit format with leading zero should be
preferred in every new entry.


~Niels

[1] Warning, this is based on the very unscientific sample size of about
3 source packages.



Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>:
Bug#980825; Package debian-policy. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 03:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Guillem Jover <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 03:45:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #10 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Guillem Jover <[email protected]>
To: Niels Thykier <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bug#980825: debian-policy: Historical sign off dates in d/changelog and "single digit" day of the month
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2021 04:40:49 +0100
Hi!

On Fri, 2021-01-22 at 22:15:24 +0100, Niels Thykier wrote:
> Package: debian-policy
> Version: 4.5.0.0
> Severity: minor
> 
> This is a bit of a nit pick, but I think it is a special case worth
> mentioning in Policy.
> 
> I am basing this on
> https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#debian-changelog-debian-changelog
> where the date format of the changelog signoff line is described as:
> 
> 
> > The date has the following format 7 (compatible and with the same semantics of RFC 2822 and RFC 5322):
> > 
> > day-of-week, dd month yyyy hh:mm:ss +zzzz
> > 
> > where:
> > 
> >     day-of-week is one of: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
> > 
> >     dd is a one- or two-digit day of the month (01-31)
> > [...]
> 
> I find that "single-digit day" is a bit underspecified here in.
> Basically there are two options, either the leading zero is replaced
> with a leading space or the leading zero is simply omitted.
> 
> Sadly, neither RFC 2822 nor RFC 5322 are helpful in clearing this up as
> they both assume "two-digit" days.
> 
> My understanding is that the reason for "single-digit" days is to
> support historical changelogs, where Debian omitted the leading zero.
> The samples I have found[1], the leading zero is replaced with a single
> space as in:
> 
> >  -- Joey Hess <[email protected]>  Thu,  3 Dec 1998 23:31:56 -0800
> 
> 
> 
> This is relatively prevalent.  As an (un)scientific example, this
> alternative variant accounts for:
> 
>  * ~21% of all signoff dates in debhelper (202/927)
>  * ~10% of all signoff dates in apt (49/480)
> 
> 
> I applaud policy for highlighting the correct and preferred example, so
> I propose that we restrain this amendment to a footnote (or another note
> of equal low importance) that informs the reader that this alternative
> format may be found in older changelog entries and that this variant is
> still accepted but that the two-digit format with leading zero should be
> preferred in every new entry.

Isn't this report a duplicate of #971977?

(I clarified the other report in deb-changelog(5) with
<https://git.dpkg.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git/commit/?id=05264f16e69d34b78700fccddc6f9950e75a8295>.)

Thanks,
Guillem




Information forwarded to [email protected], Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>:
Bug#980825; Package debian-policy. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 21:48:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Niels Thykier <[email protected]>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Debian Policy Editors <[email protected]>. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 21:48:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Message #15 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Niels Thykier <[email protected]>
To: Guillem Jover <[email protected]>, [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bug#980825: debian-policy: Historical sign off dates in d/changelog and "single digit" day of the month
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2021 22:28:06 +0100
Control: forcemerge -1 971977

Guillem Jover:
> Hi!
> 
> [...]
> 
> Isn't this report a duplicate of #971977?
> 
> (I clarified the other report in deb-changelog(5) with
> <https://git.dpkg.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git/commit/?id=05264f16e69d34b78700fccddc6f9950e75a8295>.)
> 
> Thanks,
> Guillem
> 

Seems like it.  Thanks for the heads up.

~Niels




Marked as found in versions debian-policy/4.5.0.3. Request was from Niels Thykier <[email protected]> to [email protected]. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 21:48:03 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


Merged 971977 980825 Request was from Niels Thykier <[email protected]> to [email protected]. (Sat, 23 Jan 2021 21:48:04 GMT) (full text, mbox, link).


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