Re: Proposal: New source format (was Re: [Fwd: Re: dpkg question])

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@datasync.com>]

Hi,
>>"Lars" == Lars Wirzenius <liw@iki.fi> writes:

Lars> [1 <text/plain; us-ascii (7bit)>] [ Please don't Cc: public
Lars> replies to me. ]

Lars> Some points:

Lars> 1. If the upstream source packages are to be included
Lars> bit-for-bit in their original form, how are you going to unpack
Lars> them? Remember, you _have_ to handle all formats: .zip,
Lars> .tar.tar, .shar, binhex, multiple files, comp.binaries.*
Lars> postings, ... That's an awful lot of complexity in the packaging
Lars> tools.

	I suggest that one not be fanatical about this rule. Let us
 say that if the source is well behaved (that is, it is a tar file
 that unpacks into *some* directory other than ., compressed or
 gzippped). Other archive formats should still be converted to tar +
 gzip. 

	I agree completely with the points Lars made about not
 requiring special programs in order to unpack sources, and continuing
 the current practice of diff only uploads.

	manoj

-- 
 "For those of you who don't know, you know that after about three or
 four years of concern on this issue the board of the National Right
 to Life Committee voted to oppose ERA." Dr. John Wilke, President,
 National Right to Life Committee, "Weekend", 1/21/79, as quoted in
 "The Far Right, Speaking For Themselves," a Planned Parenthood
 pamphlet
Manoj Srivastava               <url:mailto:srivasta@acm.org>
Mobile, Alabama USA            <url:http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>


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