From: martin-eric.racine@iki.fi 
  
 la 27.9.2025 klo 11.48 Samuel Thibault (sthibault@debian.org) kirjoitti: 
 > Martin-€€ric Racine, le sam. 27 sept. 2025 09:41:58 +0300, a ecrit: 
 > > IMHO, in order for Lintian's severity levels to be meaningful in 
 > > determining a package's fitness for inclusion in the Debian 
 > > repository, an Error ought to refer to a MUST[NOT] Policy item, 
 > 
 > I don't think lintian errors are supposed to match policy items. 
 > While lintian fatal errors (used by ftpmaster to reject package) can, 
 > indeed. 
  
 Which is precisely the problem. A tag with the severity level Error 
 has consequences, so Lintian should use that severity level sparingly. 
  
 > I mean, I don't think we'll try to encode in the policy all pieces that 
 > we know are errors that will hit us somehow and we want to highlight to 
 > maintainers. Just taking the first tag I see coming: 
 > 
 > Just taking the first example I can find in the tags: 
 > 
 > Tag: apache2-configuration-files-need-conf-suffix 
 > Severity: error 
 > Check: apache2 
 > Explanation: The package is installing an Apache2 configuration but that 
 file does not 
 >  end with a '.conf' suffix. Starting with Apache2 2.4 all 
 configuration 
 >  files except module '.load' files need that suffix or are 
 ignored otherwise. 
 > 
 > This is clearly an error that we want to highlight, while not actually 
 > being a problem for inclusion in debian, so won't be covered by the 
 > policy. 
  
 Agreed. In fairness, in that particular case, the error is explained 
 by a requirement due to Apache code change. 
  
 Here are two less obvious ones: 
  
 N: 
 E: package-installs-apt-sources 
 N: 
 N:   Debian packages should not install files under 
 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ or install an /etc/apt/sources.list file. 
 N: 
 N:   The selection of installation sources is under the control of the 
 local administrator. Packages are generally not allowed to change the 
 administrator's choices. 
 N: 
 N:   As a limited exception for the convenience of administrators, 
 packages whose names end in the clearly named -apt-source are 
 permitted to install such files. 
 N: 
 N:   Please refer to the sources.list(5) manual page for details. 
 N: 
 N:   Visibility: error 
 N:   Show-Always: no 
 N:   Check: apt 
 N:   Renamed from: package-install-apt-sources 
 N: 
  
 This is a fairly common case for commercial non-free commercial 
 packages and for local packages deployed across a whole company. The 
 package includes a sources.list.d file to enable fetching updates, and 
 it definitely won't pull in a separate company-apt-source package just 
 to quiet down Lintian. 
  
 N: 
 E: package-installs-apt-preferences 
 N: 
 N:   Debian packages should not install files under 
 /etc/apt/preferences.d/ or install an /etc/apt/preferences file. This 
 directory is under the control of the local administrator. 
 N: 
 N:   Package should not override local administrator choices. 
 N: 
 N:   Please refer to the apt_preferences(5) manual page for details. 
 N: 
 N:   Visibility: error 
 N:   Show-Always: no 
 N:   Check: apt 
 N:   Renamed from: package-install-apt-preferences 
 N: 
  
 There is an obvious need to prefer customized versions over Debian 
 versions for packages deployed across a whole company. 
  
 Martin-€€ric 
  
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