Field names may not contain spaces

* Clarify the syntax of field names to make it clear that they may not
  contain spaces.  Thanks, Charles Plessy.  (Closes: #647645)

diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 9b82e5f94a35cf5cbf4f3e7cb5f3fed09f389f89..b81d85b1a22f461725a50d87897c6a969cc4953f 100644 (file)
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ debian-policy (3.9.3.1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
     dash.  Thanks, Raphael Geissert.  (Closes: #490604)
   * Remove the ambiguous word "installed" when requiring that the location
     of files and directories follow the FHS.  (Closes: #638060)
+  * Clarify the syntax of field names to make it clear that they may not
+    contain spaces.  Thanks, Charles Plessy.  (Closes: #647645)
   * Install the HTML version of upgrading-checklist in the policy.html
     directory as upgrading-checklist.html so that it can be deployed on
     www.debian.org in a way that will allow links to Policy sections to

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 0121da51069c18300781f282e9440ebc46b88f55..465a1293b8b03dfe74e046d8dcb74c0af3ef2292 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -2499,18 +2499,21 @@ endif
        </p>
 
        <p>
-         Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields; each
-         field consists of the field name, followed by a colon and
-         then the data/value associated with that field.  The field
-         name is composed of printable ASCII characters (i.e.,
-         characters that have values between 33 and 126, inclusive)
-         except colon and must not with a begin with #.  The
-         field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the
-         last continuation line (see below).  Horizontal whitespace
-         (spaces and tabs) may occur immediately before or after the
-         value and is ignored there; it is conventional to put a
-         single space after the colon.  For example, a field might
-         be:
+         Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields.  Each field
+         consists of the field name followed by a colon and then the
+         data/value associated with that field.  The field name is
+         composed of US-ASCII characters excluding control characters,
+         space, and colon (i.e., characters in the ranges 33-57 and
+         59-126, inclusive).  Field names must not begin with the comment
+         character, <tt>#</tt>.
+       </p>
+
+       <p>
+         The field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the last
+         continuation line (see below).  Horizontal whitespace (spaces
+         and tabs) may occur immediately before or after the value and is
+         ignored there; it is conventional to put a single space after
+         the colon.  For example, a field might be:
          <example compact="compact">
 Package: libc6
          </example>