remove a useless dir, /usr/share/developers-reference; fix install

[developers-reference.git] / developers-reference.sgml

diff --git a/developers-reference.sgml b/developers-reference.sgml
index 3cc79e0b7370435abaa980bd5dd4e8e78a1f9941..a16315578dc105b9cd3d3bad14584e972940013c 100644 (file)
--- a/developers-reference.sgml
+++ b/developers-reference.sgml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   <!-- common, language independant entities -->
   <!entity % commondata  SYSTEM "common.ent" > %commondata;
   <!-- CVS revision of this document -->
-  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.47 $">
+  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.50 $">
 
   <!-- if you are translating this document, please notate the RCS
        revision of the developers reference here -->
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 
       <copyright>
        <copyrightsummary>
-copyright &copy;1998, 1999 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
+copyright &copy;1998 &ndash 2001 Adam Di Carlo</copyrightsummary>
        <copyrightsummary>
 copyright &copy;1997, 1998 Christian Schwarz</copyrightsummary>
        <p>
@@ -84,8 +84,9 @@ be found in the <url id="&url-debian-policy;" name="Debian Policy
 Manual">.
       <p>
 Furthermore, this document is <em>not an expression of formal
-policy</em>.  It contains documentation for the Debian system, and
-generally agreed-upon best practices.
+policy</em>.  It contains documentation for the Debian system and
+generally agreed-upon best practices.  Thus, it is what is called a
+``normative'' document.
 
 
     <chapt id="new-maintainer">Applying to Become a Maintainer
@@ -831,19 +832,21 @@ less strain on the Debian archive maintainers.
 Every released Debian distribution has a <em>code name</em>: Debian
 1.1 is called `buzz'; Debian 1.2, `rex'; Debian 1.3, `bo'; Debian 2.0,
 `hamm'; Debian 2.1, `slink'; and Debian 2.2, `potato'.  There is also
-a ``pseudo-distribution'', called `sid', which is contains packages for
-architectures which are not yet officially supported or released by
-Debian.  These architectures are planned to be integrated into the
-mainstream distribution at some future date.
+a ``pseudo-distribution'', called `sid', which is the current
+`unstable' distribution; since packages are moved from `unstable' to
+`testing' as they approach stability, `sid' itself is never released.
+As well as the usual contents of a Debian distribution, `sid' contains
+packages for architectures which are not yet officially supported or
+released by Debian.  These architectures are planned to be integrated
+into the mainstream distribution at some future date.
        <p>
 Since Debian has an open development model (i.e., everyone can
-participate and follow the development) even the unstable distribution
-is distributed to the Internet through the Debian FTP and HTTP server
-network. Thus, if we had called the directory which contains the
-development version `unstable', then we would have to rename it to
-`stable' when the version is released, which would cause all FTP
-mirrors to re-retrieve the whole distribution (which is quite
-large).
+participate and follow the development) even the `unstable' and `testing'
+distributions are distributed to the Internet through the Debian FTP and
+HTTP server network. Thus, if we had called the directory which contains
+the release candidate version `testing', then we would have to rename it
+to `stable' when the version is released, which would cause all FTP
+mirrors to re-retrieve the whole distribution (which is quite large).
        <p>
 On the other hand, if we called the distribution directories
 <em>Debian-x.y</em> from the beginning, people would think that Debian
@@ -1963,6 +1966,21 @@ of Debian policy as well as some checks for common errors.  The use of
 id="upload-checking"> and <ref id="lintian-reports">.
 
 
+      <sect id="debconf">
+        <heading><package>debconf</package></heading>
+        <p>
+<package>debconf</package> provides a consistent interface to
+configuring packages interactively.  It is user interface
+intedependant, allowing end-users to configure packages with a
+text-only interface, an HTML interface, or a dialog interface.  New
+interfaces can be added modularly.
+        <p>
+Many feel that this system should be used for all packages requiring
+interactive configuration.  <package>debconf</package> is not
+currently required by Debian Policy, however, that may change in the
+future.
+
+
       <sect id="debhelper">
        <heading><package>debhelper</package>
        <p>