"Steve M. Robbins" <st...@sumost.ca> writes: > On April 25, 2014 11:02:29 PM Ben Finney wrote: > > We promise the source for everything any recipient downloads as part > > of Debian. If non-source files are distributed in Debian source > > packages, without a way to confidently guarantee the corresponding > > source is what's already available in Debian, then that is a > > definite impact on the freedom of Debian recipients: it threatens > > the freedom promises in the Social Contract. > > That is certainly not a universally held view. Some of us [1] regard > random trash littering the source distribution -- but not used in > generating the actual software (binary distribution) -- as merely a > nuisance that can be tolerated.
If it's in the Debian source package, it is distributed as part of Debian. If it's distributed as part of Debian, it is subject to the promises in the Debian Social Contract. Those promises include the promise that anything in Debian has its source in Debian. That promise entails a confident guarantee that the source corresponding to any non-source file – such as an obfuscated Javascript file's corresponding source form – is in Debian. What part are you saying is “not a universally held view”, and how do you reconcile that with the Debian Social Contract? > I have to say that this absolutist zeal in scrubbing the source > package grates on me for two reasons. FIrst, it introduces an > undocumented difference between upstream source and Debian source. The difference should not be undocumented: the difference should be described in the package, and its rationale given. ‘README.source’ is a good place to document the difference. > Second, it adds a bunch of busywork that distracts and, frankly, > de-motivates me from working on packaging. I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm presenting what appear to me to be clear implications of the facts of the matter. Fortunately, we have people working on tools to make this significantly easier (e.g. nominating files to be automatically removed from downloaded upstream source; nominating files to be presented in the source package as corresponding source; etc.). So, please don't be disheartened! This is a situation that is eminently addressible in a manner conformant with the Social Contract, and work already being done to address it. -- \ “It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out | `\ how nature *is*. Physics concerns what we can *say* about | _o__) nature…” —Niels Bohr | Ben Finney -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/85mwf8lh0y....@benfinney.id.au
