cleanup RPM Tags in Packaging Guidelines

[Till Maas]

Hiyas,

currently the RPM Tags section in the Packaging Guidelines[0] contains a
blacklist of some RPM Tags:

* Packager
* Vendor
* Copyright
* PreReq

Except for the Copyright tag, they all should not be used. I want to
propose to change this to to a whitelist of RPM Tags that are allowed to
be used and mention only explanations about their substitutions or
reasons why they must not be used in the Guidelines. As the previous
sentence implicates, I also want to change it to forbid these tags
completely (must not) or there should be some information added, when it
is ok to use them in Fedora. E.g. when is it ok to use PreReq or
Packager in the Spec? The guidelines do not answer this question,
therefore it would be easier to just forbid these tags for easier
understanding of the guidelines. If there is a reason to use these tags
in the future, the guidelines can be adapted anyways.

The reason why I spotted this, is because a spec posted for review does
contain a tag called "Distribution" and the Guidelines do not provide
any guidance about how to proceed. I assume that it must not be used
either.

Regards
Till

[0] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#Tags

[Jon Ciesla]

Till Maas wrote:
> Hiyas,
>
> currently the RPM Tags section in the Packaging Guidelines[0] contains a
> blacklist of some RPM Tags:
> Packager
> Vendor
> Copyright
> PreReq
>
> Except for the Copyright tag, they all should not be used. I want to
> propose to change this to to a whitelist of RPM Tags that are allowed to
> be used and mention only explanations about their substitutions or
> reasons why they must not be used in the Guidelines. As the previous
> sentence implicates, I also want to change it to forbid these tags
> completely (must not) or there should be some information added, when it
> is ok to use them in Fedora. E.g. when is it ok to use PreReq or
> Packager in the Spec? The guidelines do not answer this question,
> therefore it would be easier to just forbid these tags for easier
> understanding of the guidelines. If there is a reason to use these tags
> in the future, the guidelines can be adapted anyways.
>
> The reason why I spotted this, is because a spec posted for review does
> contain a tag called "Distribution" and the Guidelines do not provide
> any guidance about how to proceed. I assume that it must not be used
> either.
>
> Regards
> Till
>
> [0] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#Tags
>
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> Fedora-packaging mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-packaging

Would you be willing to write up a draft for submission to the FPC?

-J

[Till Maas]

On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 03:10:23PM -0500, Jon Ciesla wrote:
> Would you be willing to write up a draft for submission to the FPC?

I started here:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackagingDrafts/RPM_Tags_Whitelist

I noticed during the editing, that the several guidelines regarding the
RPM tags are spread through the whole Packagaging Guidelines, e.g. at the
end of the Guidelines, there are additional Guidelines regarding Patches
and Epoch and a Guideline regarding %clean is in between two other RPM
tags. I will address this in the draft, too, before I consider it ready
for review.

Nevertheless, please already add RPM Tags to the Whitelist that you
are missing.

Regards
Till