On February 14, 2020 3:46:18 PM UTC, Dimitri John Ledkov <x...@debian.org>
wrote:
>Can a Debian Package Maintainer require CLA for accepting packaging
>changes and distro patches to be uploaded into Debian itself?
>
>(case in point, debian maintainer & upstream wear the same hat, and
>maintain upstream code & packaging on github.com, under a company org
>with a CLA bot, rejecting debian/* merge proposals until CLA is
>signed)
>
>I didn't find things specifically about this in the policy and/or in
>the dfsg-faq and the three classic tests (desert island / dissident /
>tentacles of evil) do not fit the bill quite right.
There's no requirement in Debian to use any VCS to upload a package, so
policies related to accepting changes in any VCS are orthogonal to what's
acceptable for the archive.
Maintainers have substantial discretion regarding what contributions they
accept. "I don't want a patch that's not upstreamable" is not uncommon.
Mostly your question seems to be a variant of that concern.
For packaging changes I think it's not as clear, but I don't think there're any
rules.
I have, in the past, resorted to providing upstream feedback along the lines of
"On line 76 of file abc.py, change the value 256 to 255” to avoid providing a
patch that would have triggered a CLA requirement. If this is an actual
problem in the archive and not merely theoretical, I'd suggest a work-around
something like that.
That said, I think it's in poor taste at best.
Scott K
