At the Debian Policy BoF at DebConf17, Solveig suggested that we could post summaries of recent activity in policy bugs to Planet Debian, as a kind of call for participation. Russ Allbery had written a script to generate such a summary some time ago, but it couldn’t handle the usertags the policy team uses to progress bugs through the policy changes process. Today I enhanced the script to handle usertags and I’m pleased to be able to post a summary of our bugs.

Consensus has been reached and help is needed to write a patch

#172436 BROWSER and sensible-browser standardization

#273093 document interactions of multiple clashing package diversions

#299007 Transitioning perms of /usr/local

#314808 Web applications should use /usr/share/package, not /usr/share/doc/…

#425523 Describe error unwind when unpacking a package fails

#452393 Clarify difference between required and important priorities

#476810 Please clarify 12.5, “Copyright information”

#484673 file permissions for files potentially including credential informa…

#491318 init scripts “should” support start/stop/restart/force-reload - why…

#556015 Clarify requirements for linked doc directories

#568313 Suggestion: forbid the use of dpkg-statoverride when uid and gid ar…

#578597 Recommend usage of dpkg-buildflags to initialize CFLAGS and al.

#582109 document triggers where appropriate

#587279 Clarify restrictions on main to non-free dependencies

#587991 perl-policy: /etc/perl missing from Module Path

#592610 Clarify when Conflicts + Replaces et al are appropriate

#613046 please update example in 4.9.1 (debian/rules and DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)

#614807 Please document autobuilder-imposed build-dependency alternative re…

#616462 clarify wording of parenthetical in section 2.2.1

#628515 recommending verbose build logs

#661928 recipe for determining shlib package name

#664257 document Architecture name definitions

#682347 mark ‘editor’ virtual package name as obsolete

#683222 say explicitly that debian/changelog is required in source packages

#685506 copyright-format: new Files-Excluded field

#685746 debian-policy Consider clarifying the use of recommends

#688251 Built-Using description too aggressive

#757760 please document build profiles

#759316 Document the use of /etc/default for cron jobs

#761219 document versioned Provides

#767839 Linking documentation of arch:any package to arch:all

#770440 policy should mention systemd timers

#773557 Avoid unsafe RPATH/RUNPATH

#780725 PATH used for building is not specified

#793499 The Installed-Size algorithm is out-of-date

#810381 Update wording of 5.6.26 VCS-* fields to recommend encryption

#823256 Update maintscript arguments with dpkg >= 1.18.5

#833401 virtual packages: dbus-session-bus, dbus-default-session-bus

#835451 Building as root should be discouraged

#838777 Policy 11.8.4 for x-window-manager needs update for freedesktop menus

#845715 Please document that packages are not allowed to write outside thei…

#853779 Clarify requirements about update-rc.d and invoke-rc.d usage in mai…

Wording proposed, awaiting review from anyone and/or seconds by DDs

#542288 Versions for native packages, NMU’s, and binary only uploads

#582109 document triggers where appropriate

#630174 forbid installation into /lib64

#645696 [copyright-format] clearer definitions and more consistent License:…

#648271 11.8.3 “Packages providing a terminal emulator” says xterm passes -…

#649530 [copyright-format] clearer definitions and more consistent License:…

#662998 stripping static libraries

#732445 debian-policy should encourage verification of upstream cryptograph…

#737796 copyright-format: support Files: paragraph with both abbreviated na…

#756835 Extension of the syntax of the Packages-List field.

#786470 [copyright-format] Add an optional “License-Grant” field

#835451 Building as root should be discouraged

#844431 Packages should be reproducible

#845255 Include best practices for packaging database applications

#850729 Documenting special version number suffixes

Merged for the next release

#587279 Clarify restrictions on main to non-free dependencies

#616462 clarify wording of parenthetical in section 2.2.1

#732445 debian-policy should encourage verification of upstream cryptograph…

#844431 Packages should be reproducible