Tighten changelog format requirements and remove alternate formats

Tighten several changelog format requirements to a must and remove
the provision for alternative changelog formats, since the latter
is not permitted in the Debian archive.

Closes: #489460

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 24c90727e276c2d748c889ed17679a326f08693f..bbd8c55bce5d0bd1e074d7c92f80df3b1667bec1 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -1472,10 +1472,6 @@
          </footnote>
        </p>
 
-        <p>
-          
-        </p>
-
         <p>
           The format of the <file>debian/changelog</file> allows the
          package building tools to discover which version of the package
@@ -1566,17 +1562,17 @@
        </p>
 
        <p>
-         The <var>date</var> should be in RFC822 format<footnote>
+         The <var>date</var> must be in RFC822 format<footnote>
              This is generated by <tt>date -R</tt>.
-         </footnote>; it should include the time zone specified
+         </footnote>; it must include the time zone specified
          numerically, with the time zone name or abbreviation
          optionally present as a comment in parentheses.
        </p>
 
        <p>
-         The first "title" line with the package name should start
-         at the left hand margin; the "trailer" line with the
-         maintainer and date details should be preceded by exactly
+         The first "title" line with the package name must start
+         at the left hand margin.  The "trailer" line with the
+         maintainer and date details must be preceded by exactly
          one space.  The maintainer details and the date must be
          separated by exactly two spaces.
        </p>
@@ -1585,33 +1581,8 @@
          For more information on placement of the changelog files
          within binary packages, please see <ref id="changelogs">.
        </p>
-
-       <sect1><heading>Alternative changelog formats</heading>
-
-         <p>
-           In non-experimental packages you must use a format for
-           <file>debian/changelog</file> which is supported by the most
-           recent released version of <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
-         </p>
-
-         <p>
-           It is possible to use a format different from the standard
-           one by providing a changelog parser for the format you wish
-           to use. The parser must have an API compatible with that
-           expected by <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and
-           <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>, and it must not interact with
-           the user at all.
-           <footnote>
-             If there is general interest in the new format, you should
-             contact the <package>dpkg</package> maintainer to have the
-             parser script for it included in the <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
-             package.  (You will need to agree that the parser and its
-             man page may be distributed under the GNU GPL, just as the rest
-             of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is.)
-           </footnote>
-         </p>
-       </sect1>
       </sect>
+
       <sect id="dpkgcopyright">
        <heading>Copyright: <file>debian/copyright</file></heading>
         <p>