Re: debian/copyright for files not part of the binary packages?
Hi,
Stefano Zacchiroli wrote:
> You mean something like: http://ftp-master.debian.org/REJECT-FAQ.html ?
> But I see your point. Also note that that list is not IMO clear enough
> to explain Steve's reject (i.e. it does not state «we will reject any
> source package with at least one file not accounted for by
> debian/changelog»). But still it is a good start. I guess that it should
^ copyright
> just be better advertised (pointer from developers-reference?) and
> clarified as soon as cases like this one arise.
The reject FAQ has been featured on d-d-announce[1], is linked from the
NEW queue page and, AFAIK, referred to in most if not all rejection
mails from Joerg.
It does have (under the innocently named item "License"):
"We often find packages having a GPL COPYING file in the source, but if
one goes and looks at every file there are a few here and there having
different licenses in them, sometimes as bad as You aren't allowed to do
anything with this file, and if you do we will send our lawyers to you."
"if one goes and looks at every file" seems to be indicative of the
expectations in NEW review. But of course, you could always suggest patches.
And really, we are discussing three questions here
- Should the debian/copyright apply to source packages as well as
binaries?
And my (personal and de facto working) opinion is it should if only
because I would expect documentation to be forgotten with the initial
upload more often than intentionally not put in the binaries.
Also, when we do require freeness of the source packages as well
as the binaries, it seems not too unreasonable to require license
information for all of it. In particular it is not a policy that was
just made up for the sake of it, but something a quite natural
evolution of requiring copyright information and freeness of
"everything".
Finally, it somewhat reduces the amount of time it takes to check
stuff if one does not have to inspect which file is put in which
binary package.
- Should packages with neglected debian/copyright pass NEW if you
managed to put the bad stuff in the archive without anyone noticing?
Having filed a couple of serious bugs for similar cases, sure that
works, too, but it is a lot more tedious: One has to check whether the
bug is present in the unstable package (it could be introduced with
the new one), take the version etc. For every single package, that
is not a problem, but I did not yet process batches larger than
some 10 packages yet, either. When doing a lot of NEW, that is fairly
tedious - it involves a bunch of extra screens to look at in addition
to the two or three already in use for doing NEW.
Given that it does not save the maintainer a lot of work (reuploading
after a reject vs. timely attending to the RC bug about the license),
it seems to me that rejecting the package is not that bad a choice
efficiency-wise. OTOH if people, to avoid the reject, could be
bothered to look at their copyright file every couple of years when
package names change, we would not have to have this discussion and
actually get a less buggy archive.[2]
- If it something passed NEW last time, should that necessarily happen
the next time as well?
An oversight does not invalidate the problem, does it?
Kind regards
T.
1. last time at
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/03/msg00023.html
2. Seriously, what do you answer NMs asking why there are so many
substandard copyright files in Debian when doing QA work? That
it used to be more difficult a few years ago?
--
Thomas Viehmann, http://thomas.viehmann.net/
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