Crossing debtags and popcon

[Justin B Rye]

Andrea Bolognani wrote:
>> from the viewpoint of current Etch users, the online databases provide
>> gradually improving coverage of the distribution, while the Packages
>> file is essentially frozen
> 
> This is due to the way tags are managed now: just a small number of persons
> are working on tags, and the archive is still not completely tagged.
> 
> When the archive coverage will be complete, this won't be a problem anymore:

Presumably this will happen some time after we run out of new
software to add to the archive!

> the tags for the version in testing of a package will be correct and, even if
> the version in unstable will have different tags, this would mean only that
> some of the functionalities of the package are different, not that the newer
> tags are better.

Remember my example.  The foo-media-player in my Packages file is
the Stable version, a role::dummy package that pulls in a -gui and
-common packages; the package of that name in Sid is role::program
and works-with-format::{all sorts of things that the Stable tag
vocabulary has never heard of}.  In that situation, the newer tags
are _worse_ for me.  Tag-archives outside the Packages file need
release-name stamps. 

> I still think the right way to tag packages is to add the Tags: field in
> debian/control, add dpkg support for it, and then provide the mantainers with
> good documentation on how to tag a package correctly.
> 
> For packages which are still not tagged after this is done, just file a
> wishlist bug, providing a patch for the control file.

Improved (and better-automated) coverage in the Packages file would
be good; but I'm against having it entirely replace the online
databases, because that would make things worse for my local users
in two regards:
* if the only way to correct a tag is to provide a well-formatted
	patch to the source tree, that's a barrier against
	contributions (especially from non-developers).
* if there are no online archives, the only way to get corrected
	tags is via new package versions - and for Stable users,
	that means waiting years.  By which time foo-media-player
	may be role::dummy again.

Of course (going back to my original point) if the online archives
are all tracking Sid, they're no use to Stable users.  However, if
there was a separate online tag-archive for each release, it would
be the Stable users who would need alioth the most, because they
can't get tag corrections into their Packages file.
-- 
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)