> So what if a friend gives me a floppy with a package and I have no
> idea where it comes from and only email net access?
Then you could E-mail your friend or the maintainer, and ask them to
E-mail you back the tiny origin file or the tiny package containing
it. I don't see why this is any different from, "A friend gives me a
floppy with a package, and it depends on some other package that I
don't have..."
> Think of getting an Oracle CD with debs on it that you can't get
> from the net, where do you get the package containing the origin from
> then?
In this case, I'd say either off the CD or the debs should have bugs
fields.
I'm not suggesting that .deb's shouldn't have *any* bugs field. I'm
suggesting that:
1. The bugs field should be optional.
2. If the bugs field isn't present, the origin should be used to get
the bug submission URL.
3. Official Debian packages shouldn't have a bugs field, by policy,
since bugs for them should go to the official Debian BTS. [1]
4. Dpkg should warn you when installing a package with an origin not
listed in /etc/.../origins. [2]
-itai
[1] I could probably be convinced that this is a bad idea, but I'm not
convinced, yet.
[2] OK, so I just thought of this this morning so there's probably
something wrong with it.
