Rephrase the wording for orphaned packages

[debian/debian-policy.git] / policy.sgml

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index ca83a42cd68069b63073ed36c098a4d1630c5950..d6c63f63d49d83931beae054af967851fdc657fd 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -911,10 +911,11 @@
        <heading>The maintainer of a package</heading>
 
        <p>
-         Every package must have a maintainer.  The maintainer may be one
-         person or a group of people reachable from a common email
-         address, such as a mailing list.  The maintainer is responsible
-         for maintaining the Debian packaging files, evaluating and
+         Every package must have a maintainer, except for orphaned
+         packages as described below.  The maintainer may be one person
+         or a group of people reachable from a common email address, such
+         as a mailing list.  The maintainer is responsible for
+         maintaining the Debian packaging files, evaluating and
          responding appropriately to reported bugs, uploading new
          versions of the package (either directly or through a sponsor),
          ensuring that the package is placed in the appropriate archive
@@ -957,14 +958,16 @@
        </p>
 
        <p>
-         If the maintainer of a package no longer has time or desire to
-         maintain a package, it should be orphaned according to the
-         procedure described in the Debian Developer's Reference
-         (see <ref id="related">).  The maintainer then
-         becomes <tt>Debian QA Group &lt;packages@qa.debian.org&gt;</tt>.
+         An orphaned package is one with no current maintainer.  Orphaned
+         packages should have their <tt>Maintainer</tt> control field set
+         to <tt>Debian QA Group &lt;packages@qa.debian.org&gt;</tt>.
          These packages are considered maintained by the Debian project
          as a whole until someone else volunteers to take over
-         maintenance.
+         maintenance.<footnote>
+           The detailed procedure for gracefully orphaning a package can
+           be found in the Debian Developer's Reference
+           (see <ref id="related">).
+         </footnote>
        </p>
       </sect>