XPost: linux.debian.bugs.dist 
 From: tg@mirbsd.de 
  
 Package: dpkg-dev 
 Version: 1.22.21 
 Severity: minor 
 X-Debbugs-Cc: Thorsten Glaser  
  
 The fields are currently, like all the other Vcs-* fields, 
 specified to take (only) an €€€url€€€ parameter. 
  
  
 For VCS-git, this is not entirely correct, the spec should be: 
  
 "VCS-git:" wsp url [wsp "-b" wsp branchname] 
  
 This is well-established and has been disseminated right around 
 the time those VCS-* headers were introduced. 
  
  
 For VCS-CVS, we need two(!) items instead. CVS repository 
 coordinates are not defined, nor definable, by an URL, as 
 they are comprised of two independent URL-like entities, 
 the path to the repository and the module within that. 
  
 For example, to obtain the upstream sources for mksh, you can do: 
  
 cvs -Rqd _anoncvs@anoncvs.mirbsd.org:/cvs co -PA src/bin/mksh 
  
 Here, the RCS ,v files are placed in /cvs/src/bin/mksh/ on 
 the server. However, we cannot just say, for example, 
  
 VCS-CVS: _anoncvs@anoncvs.mirbsd.org:/cvs/src/bin/mksh  # wrong 
  
 €€€ because the split between the CVS repository and the 
 module within the repository cannot be determined from 
 just that. 
  
 It also cannot be determined server-side, as each repository 
 is defined by having a CVSROOT/ subdirectory, but you can 
 nest them (and I€€€ve seen people do that, and I€€€ve done that 
 for my cvs2git pseudo-repos as well), and between€€€ 
  
 cvs -Rqd user@example.org:/repo co subrepo/dir/file 
 # vs. 
 cvs -Rqd user@example.org:/repo/subrepo co dir/file 
  
 €€€ you get different content (the RCS IDs will differ), so 
 the distinction must be observed. 
  
 With CVS rising in importance due to git going to require 
 a port of LLVM and Rust to be used, excluding most hobby 
 OSes, I would like this spec bug to be fixed so lintian 
 stops complaining. I have been na€€vely (relying only on 
 the aforementioned announcement) using€€€ 
  
 "VCS-CVS:" wsp repopath wsp modulepath 
  
 €€€ for this purpose, but am willing to work together to find 
 a better spec if this doesn€€€t suit. (Spaces within directory 
 names are going to break lots, so I hope people stay off them.) 
  
 Herein, repopath is anything that fulfills *(cvs)Repository:: 
 (i.e. works as argument to the cvs -d global option), and 
 modulepath is a relative filesystem construct. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)