Re: MAINTAINER/OWNER and real email addresses

["D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

On Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:29:06 +0100 (CET)
Hubert Feyrer <hubert%feyrer.de@localhost> wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Mar 2009, D'Arcy J.M. Cain wrote:
> > Index: pkgsrc.txt
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvsroot/pkgsrc/doc/pkgsrc.txt,v
> 
> This file is generated from pkgsrc/doc/guide/* - please change that!

Sure but I never got any indication that the actual change was
acceptable.  To remind people, I basically want to change the guide to
disallow the use of variables in MAINTAINER addresses.  For example, in
shells/zsh we have the following:

MAINTAINER=     ${ZSH_MAINTAINER}

Now this is in Makefile.common and the Makefile does have the
MAINTAINER in clear text but not under the variable "MAINTAINER."  If
someone is looking for the MAINTAINER of a package they may find that
line and have to search backwards to find the definition.  It seems to
me that MAINTAINER is meant to be used by people and not by programs
that can parse and evaluate.  As such it should be an actual address
that can be plugged into an email client directly.

I'm a bit confused by this example anyway.  What does this indirection
buy?  It seems simpler to just use the standard variables in the
Makefiles and reference them in the common file if needed.

-- 
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <darcy%NetBSD.org@localhost>
http://www.NetBSD.org/