XPost: linux.debian.policy   
   From: simon@josefsson.org   
      
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   Content-Type: text/plain   
      
   tags 798476 patch   
   thanks   
      
   Hi!   
      
   Given discussion on debian-devel about relaxing the requirement for a   
   Uploaders: header and making this optional, I wanted to suggest a patch.   
      
   It is my personal opinion that things would be better without requiring   
   the Uploaders: field, but I have thought this was a opinionated belief   
   but the discussion on debian-devel suggests others share this.  Maybe   
   there are still strong opinions against this that I've missed, but at   
   least this patch allows a more focused discussion about how a change to   
   policy could actually look.   
      
   What do you think?   
      
   /Simon   
      
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   Content-Type: text/x-diff   
   Content-Disposition: inline; filename=0001-Make-Uploaders-optional.patch   
   Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable   
      
   From caaaebd3b0502c5b99fb47721c13809468c34269 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001   
   From: Simon Josefsson    
   Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2026 23:08:57 +0100   
   Subject: [PATCH] Make Uploaders: optional   
      
   This relaxes the requirement to add a Uploaders: field with human   
   names when Maintainer: contains a shared e-mail alias.   
      
   Use the term "uploader" instead of "co-maintainer" because the former   
   term is used elsewhere but the latter term is only ever used here   
   without any definition.   
      
   Closes: #798476   
   ---   
    policy/ch-binary.rst        | 2 +-   
    policy/ch-controlfields.rst | 6 +++---   
    2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)   
      
   diff --git a/policy/ch-binary.rst b/policy/ch-binary.rst   
   index 45a0068..9726b12 100644   
   --- a/policy/ch-binary.rst   
   +++ b/policy/ch-binary.rst   
   @@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ The format of the ``Maintainer`` control field is   
   described in   
    :ref:`s-f-Maintainer`.   
       
    If the maintainer of the package is a team of people with a shared email   
   -address, the ``Uploaders`` control field must be present and must   
   +address, the ``Uploaders`` control field may be present and   
    contain at least one human with their personal email address. See   
    :ref:`s-f-Uploaders` for the syntax of that field.   
       
   diff --git a/policy/ch-controlfields.rst b/policy/ch-controlfields.rst   
   index cad4b50..326d0f7 100644   
   --- a/policy/ch-controlfields.rst   
   +++ b/policy/ch-controlfields.rst   
   @@ -363,16 +363,16 @@ information about package maintainers.   
    ``Uploaders``   
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
       
   -List of the names and email addresses of co-maintainers of the package,   
   +List of the names and email addresses of uploaders of the package,   
    if any. If the package has other maintainers besides the one named in   
    the :ref:`Maintainer field `, their names and email   
    addresses should be listed here. The format of each entry is the same as   
    that of the Maintainer field, and multiple entries must be comma   
    separated.   
       
   -This is normally an optional field, but if the ``Maintainer`` control   
   +This is an optional field.  If the ``Maintainer`` control   
    field names a group of people and a shared email address, the   
   -``Uploaders`` field must be present and must contain at least one human   
   +``Uploaders`` field may be present and contain at least one human   
    with their personal email address.   
       
    The Uploaders field in ``debian/control`` can be folded.   
   --    
   2.52.0   
      
      
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