On 05/05/2017, Sam Kuper <sam.ku...@uclmail.net> wrote: > On 05/05/2017, Ben Hutchings <b...@decadent.org.uk> wrote: >> The legal status of ZFSonLinux was discussed by the FTP team and DPL >> over a long period, with input from legal counsel, resulting in a >> decision to put it in the 'contrib' section. That decision is unlikely >> to be revisited soon. > > Thanks. I have searched for such a discussion but have not yet found > it. Do you have a link to the discussion? Did its conclusions > definitely cover source distribution, or only binaries?
I still have not found the discussion, but I have found a helpful summary by Neil McGovern. In a comment thread there, Neil summarises the reason to put the ZFS DKMS into "main", even though it is distributed as source:[1] Martin (February 28, 2017 at 6:14 pm): > I understand the decision to distribute ZFS as source > only, but could you elaborate on why the package is > going into contrib rather than main? Neil McGovern (February 28, 2017 at 6:26 pm): > Sure – it’s about the promise that Debian makes to > the end user. Basically, by it being in main you’re > legally able to redistribute the end product (along with > source). With a CDDL module and a GPL2+ kernel, > that becomes – at best – unclear. I would still like to see the original discussion, but for the time being, this comment of Neil's adequately answer my question about Debian's rationale re: source vs binary and "contrib" vs "main". However, there is another comment thread on Neil's summary that seems very pertinent to this bug (Bug#861263):[2] Bill McGrath (March 12, 2016 at 1:27 am): > [...] If source is the only option, might I > suggest building a script into the installer to do the > downloading and compiling so that installation will still > be a breeze. Neil McGovern (March 14, 2016 at 9:11 am): > This is what’ll happen already, we’re using DKMS In other words, Bill McGrath's request matches my suggestion above[3], and Neil McGovern's reply suggests it is already on Debian's roadmap. Why, then, is this bug (Bug#861263) marked as wontfix? Did something change Neil's mind after that comment was posted? Or was Neil wrong at the time to suggest that the Debian Installer will include a script to download and compile ZFS? [1] https://blog.halon.org.uk/2016/01/on-zfs-in-debian/#comment-13678 [2] https://blog.halon.org.uk/2016/01/on-zfs-in-debian/#comment-9055 [3] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=861263#17
