Remove documentation of alternative changelog formats

Remove documentation of alternative changelog formats.  This feature
is not allowed in the Debian archive and will be documented in the
dpkg-dev documentation instead.  The documentation that was in Policy
was also somewhat outdated.  (Closes: #555009, see #584141)

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 0c616c92d13de11e7d0a1ec42de110ac1ce3c9ef..9c3c7c8fdbb7ce97cafc5530af60cc351f39f8d1 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ debian-policy (3.8.5.0) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Standardize dpkg state wording and bring it in line with dpkg,
     renaming Failed-Config to Half-Configured and use uniform
     capitalization and punctuation.  (Closes: #442134)
+  * Remove documentation of alternative changelog formats.  This feature
+    is not allowed in the Debian archive and will be documented in the
+    dpkg-dev documentation instead.  The documentation that was in Policy
+    was also somewhat outdated.  (Closes: #555009, see #584141)
 
  -- Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>  Mon, 31 May 2010 20:00:28 +0200
 

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 96a77b80b89da5ee0d04fa157198d9aafbaf33f4..5f26cec0afa25714947c53ca4c48dae6ec7b404b 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -9983,120 +9983,6 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
          </p>
        </sect1>
 
-
-       <sect1 id="pkg-dpkgchangelog">
-         <heading><file>debian/changelog</file></heading>
-
-         <p>
-           See <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
-         </p>
-
-         <sect2><heading>Defining alternative changelog formats
-           </heading>
-
-           <p>
-             It is possible to use a different format to the standard
-             one, by providing a parser for the format you wish to
-             use.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             In order to have <tt>dpkg-parsechangelog</tt> run your
-             parser, you must include a line within the last 40 lines
-             of your file matching the Perl regular expression:
-             <tt>\schangelog-format:\s+([0-9a-z]+)\W</tt> The part in
-             parentheses should be the name of the format.  For
-             example, you might say:
-             <example>
-  @@@ changelog-format: joebloggs @@@
-             </example>
-             Changelog format names are non-empty strings of alphanumerics.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             If such a line exists then <tt>dpkg-parsechangelog</tt>
-             will look for the parser as
-             <file>/usr/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog/<var>format-name</var></file>
-             or
-             <file>/usr/local/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog/<var>format-name</var></file>;
-             it is an error for it not to find it, or for it not to
-             be an executable program.  The default changelog format
-             is <tt>dpkg</tt>, and a parser for it is provided with
-             the <tt>dpkg</tt> package.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             The parser will be invoked with the changelog open on
-             standard input at the start of the file.  It should read
-             the file (it may seek if it wishes) to determine the
-             information required and return the parsed information
-             to standard output in the form of a series of control
-             fields in the standard format.  By default it should
-             return information about only the most recent version in
-             the changelog; it should accept a
-             <tt>-v<var>version</var></tt> option to return changes
-             information from all versions present <em>strictly
-             after</em> <var>version</var>, and it should then be an
-             error for <var>version</var> not to be present in the
-             changelog.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             The fields are:
-             <list compact="compact">
-               <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref></item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Distribution"><tt>Distribution</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Urgency"><tt>Urgency</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Date"><tt>Date</tt></qref></item>
-               <item><qref id="f-Changes"><tt>Changes</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
-             </list>
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             If several versions are being returned (due to the use
-             of <tt>-v</tt>), the urgency value should be of the
-             highest urgency code listed at the start of any of the
-             versions requested followed by the concatenated
-             (space-separated) comments from all the versions
-             requested; the maintainer, version, distribution and
-             date should always be from the most recent version.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             For the format of the <tt>Changes</tt> field see
-             <ref id="f-Changes">.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             If the changelog format which is being parsed always or
-             almost always leaves a blank line between individual
-             change notes these blank lines should be stripped out,
-             so as to make the resulting output compact.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             If the changelog format does not contain date or package
-             name information this information should be omitted from
-             the output.  The parser should not attempt to synthesize
-             it or find it from other sources.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             If the changelog does not have the expected format the
-             parser should exit with a nonzero exit status, rather
-             than trying to muddle through and possibly generating
-             incorrect output.
-           </p>
-
-           <p>
-             A changelog parser may not interact with the user at
-             all.
-           </p>
-         </sect2>
-       </sect1>
-
        <sect1 id="pkg-srcsubstvars">
          <heading><file>debian/substvars</file> and variable substitutions</heading>