Is there a way to provide localized versions of the Debian packaging control files (changelog, control and copyright for example) ?
+2
A:
The format is laid down in the Debian Policy Manual, chapters 4 and 5. I don't see any provision for localisation. I suspect this is because control and changelog are heavily machine-parsed; allowing the field names to change risks vastly overcomplicating the mechanisms which deal with them. It is a bad idea to localise copyright because that is supposed to be a verbatim copy of the upstream package's copyright declaration: also, being a legal document, translating it is risky.
Besides, most users never see these files. Why do you want to localise them?
crazyscot
2010-05-16 13:39:19
My guess: French law requiring every piece of documentation translated to French.
liori
2010-05-16 14:09:32
Nope, but that could be it:) I'm building a package that only makes sense for frenchies (http://github.com/nicoulaj/freeplayerd), and it looks a little bit odd having some parts in english for the end users. Not that big of a deal.
Julien Nicoulaud
2010-05-16 14:57:03
Ah, I see. For your own package, there's nothing to stop the contents of the changelog, copyright statement or the control file's name and description being in French (or perhaps slightly dual-language so that non-francophones can have an idea what it is they've come across). I see you're distributing via a PPA; if you don't plan to submit the package to the main archives you don't need to adhere tightly to the policy manual.
crazyscot
2010-05-16 20:54:10
I prefer sticking to the Debian policy, my compatriots will have to read the changelog in english ;)
Julien Nicoulaud
2010-05-16 22:19:36
+1
A:
That depends on the type of text you want to translate. I suggest to take a look at the Developer's Reference (8.1. How translations are handled within Debian).
As far as I know there is no support for changelog.Debian translations and the translations of package descriptions are maintained independently of the packages. So far, tha copyright files have been plain text files, so it should be possible to include translations in the same file.
hillu
2010-05-16 13:50:26