[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#825031: Bug#825031: Outdated package description

[Stefan Lippers-Hollmann]

Hi

On 2016-05-22, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> Package: iw
> Version: 3.17-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> The current package description includes the sentence.
> 
>  In the future iw will become the canonical command line tool for wireless
>  configuration and iwconfig/wireless-tools will no longer be required.
> 
> I think the future is here and you can delete this sentence.

That particular paragraph was probably wrong to begin with...

But the situation itself is a tad more difficult, while iw is used
non-interactively by crda to set the regulatory domain configuration,
it was originally thought (and that's where that particular phrasing
comes from) to provide configuration hooks for ifupdown (equivalent
to wireless-tools' wireless-*). This later part hasn't happened, nor
'ever' will. Basically because there are unfortunately still too many
non-cfg80211 drivers (legacy ones, like predominantly ipw2x00, all the
random staging stuff, etc.) and because wpa_supplicant is actually
mandatory for 802.11n anyways (which provides said hooks, in a generic
way itself (for both wext and mac80211), while also taking care of link
supervision (reconnect, roaming, ...). Not even taking network-manager
or systemd-networkd into account, which are more and more replacing
ifupdown.

A 'normal' user will probably only use iw indirectly (via crda) or for
debugging purposes (scanning, link features, etc.), while only rather
advanced users might think about using it to create additional 
interfaces, use 4addr or configure txpower or other special driver
settings.

So yes, the long description needs an overhaul, just not because the
previously thought of future, but because it was bad to begin with.
While the alternative to describe it as an nl80211 based tool to 
configure mac80211- or cfg80211 wireless drivers sounds a bit like
buzzword bingo, I'll probably still change it roughly in that 
direction (if just to provide these hints to apt-cache).

Thanks for reminding me, package descriptions are something one 
rarely thinks about after the initial upload.

Regards
	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
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