Lintian checking ARB packages

[Bhavani Shankar R]

On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Niels Thykier <niels at thykier.net> wrote:
> On 2012-12-27 06:21, Bhavani Shankar R wrote:
>> [...]
>>
>> Thanks Niels,
>>
>> After some tweaking latest revision of the branch
>> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bhavi/ubuntu-app-review-board/lintian-arb_profile
>> works fine at runtime with namespace checks.
>>
>
> Great. :)
>
>> A small question I have here, Is there a way to integrate source
>> package tests in lintian for example in arb-lint the sourcepackages.py
>> file checks the source tar.gz file and as far as I know lintian is
>> used on .changes file or dsc or the deb after generating the same from
>> dpkg-buildpackage,
>>
>
> Yes, Lintian can check .dsc files and the related (.orig).tar.$comp
> files.   The built-in checks "debhelper" and "debian-source-dir" are
> examples of this.  Basically, the "Type" field in the .desc should
> contain "source" and the check will run on source packages.
>
> That said, the source checks apply to the built .dsc and not the
> unpacked package tree.  So there are some of the arb-lint checks that
> cannot be turned into a Lintian check[1].
>
> I had a quick look at the current arb-lint checks and I don't think it
> would make sense to implement:
>
>  * test_has_debian_{dir,rules,control,changelog}
>    - Cannot be built and cannot be unpacked/checked
>  * test_has_copyright
>    - I believe Lintian has this as a W flag already.  You can increase
>      the severity of it, if needed.
>  * test_for_unused_cdbs
>    - I think there is a check for this in Lintian as well.
>
> For the rest:
>
>  * test_uses_dep5
>    - Maybe this should be in checks/source-copyright as a tag disabled
>      in debian/main (and possibly also in ubuntu/main).  Though, you can
>      probably use checks/source-copyright as an example here, if not.
>  * test_uses_deprecated_python_installation
>    - Lintian already has some related checks but only for the dh_*
>      helpers.  It is possible that Lintian should have a full check for
>      this in Jessie.  I am not really up to speed with Python packaging
>      in Debian, so you probably have to speak with some Python people.
>  * test_for_uptodate_standards_version:
>    - checks/standards-version might be a good example.
>
>  * test_for_multiple_changelog_entries
>    - $info->changelog might be useful.
>  * test_has_maintainer_scripts
>    - checks/debhelper might be useful as an example.
>  * test_is_lightweight_app
>    - checks/cruft might be useful as an example (e.g. File::Find
>      and $info->unpacked)
>
>  * test_conflicts_replaces_breaks:
>    - Unless you intend to allow Breaks/Replaces/Conflicts via subst
>      variables (or/and generated via tools), I would probably do this
>      in a binary check.  For a binary check it is:
>
>        if (defined $info->field ('<field>')) {
>            tag 'field-not-allowed-...', '<field>';
>        }
>
>     For a source check it is:
>
>        foreach my $binpkg ($info->binaries) {
>            if (defined $info->binary_field ($binpkg, '<field>')) {
>                tag 'field-not-allowed-...', $binpkg, '<field>';
>            }
>        }
>
>> Thanks a lot again Niels for all your inputs.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>
> [1] e.g. dpkg-source rules d/rules clean before building the source
> package, so test_has_debian_rules will probably be useless in a Lintian
> context unless/until #262783 is fixed.

Thanks again Niels, I'll have a look over this weekend and revert in
case of further doubts :)

Regards,

-- 
Bhavani Shankar
Ubuntu Developer       |  www.ubuntu.com
https://launchpad.net/~bhavi