Colin Watson <cjwat...@debian.org> writes:
> I'd say:
>
> The Debian Social Contract simply refers to "areas".
>
> ... to emphasise the fact (as it seems to me) that the SC is
> non-specific.
>
> I don't think we should feel tied to the SC's vague choice of words. I
> strongly suspect that (a) the authors were more interested in getting
> across the principle than in clear nomenclature, and (b) the specific
> term "components" in our archive maintenance software postdates the SC.
> Since this is technical policy, it seems reasonable to me that we would
> generally prefer more specific terms.
Here's an updated patch that includes this change and some other
rewordings and which changes "distribution area" to "archive area," which
I think is more accurate and less ambiguous (no confusion with the "Debian
GNU/Linux distribution," for example). How does this look?
diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 36f51aa..5ecda02 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -318,8 +318,12 @@
system, but not every package we want to make accessible is
<em>free</em> in our sense (see the Debian Free Software
Guidelines, below), or may be imported/exported without
- restrictions. Thus, the archive is split into the distribution
- areas or categories based on their licenses and other restrictions.
+ restrictions. Thus, the archive is split into areas<footnote>
+ The Debian archive software uses the term "component" internally
+ and in the Release file format to refer to the division of an
+ archive. The Debian Social Contract simply refers to "areas."
+ This document uses terminology similar to the Social Contract.
+ </footnote> based on their licenses and other restrictions.
</p>
<p>
@@ -336,12 +340,12 @@
</p>
<p>
- The <em>main</em> category forms the
- <em>Debian GNU/Linux distribution</em>.
+ The <em>main</em> archive area forms the <em>Debian GNU/Linux
+ distribution</em>.
</p>
<p>
- Packages in the other distribution areas (<tt>contrib</tt>,
+ Packages in the other archive areas (<tt>contrib</tt>,
<tt>non-free</tt>) are not considered to be part of the Debian
distribution, although we support their use and provide
infrastructure for them (such as our bug-tracking system and
@@ -448,10 +452,10 @@
</sect>
<sect id="sections">
- <heading>Categories</heading>
+ <heading>Archive areas</heading>
<sect1 id="main">
- <heading>The main category</heading>
+ <heading>The main archive area</heading>
<p>
Every package in <em>main</em> must comply with the DFSG
@@ -482,7 +486,7 @@
</sect1>
<sect1 id="contrib">
- <heading>The contrib category</heading>
+ <heading>The contrib archive area</heading>
<p>
Every package in <em>contrib</em> must comply with the DFSG.
@@ -522,7 +526,7 @@
</sect1>
<sect1 id="non-free">
- <heading>The non-free category</heading>
+ <heading>The non-free archive area</heading>
<p>
Packages must be placed in <em>non-free</em> if they are
@@ -638,25 +642,25 @@
<heading>Sections</heading>
<p>
- The packages in the categories <em>main</em>,
- <em>contrib</em> and <em>non-free</em> are grouped further
- into <em>sections</em> to simplify handling.
+ The packages in the archive areas <em>main</em>,
+ <em>contrib</em> and <em>non-free</em> are grouped further into
+ <em>sections</em> to simplify handling.
</p>
<p>
- The category and section for each package should be
- specified in the package's <tt>Section</tt> control record
- (see <ref id="f-Section">). However, the maintainer of the
- Debian archive may override this selection to ensure the
- consistency of the Debian distribution. The
- <tt>Section</tt> field should be of the form:
+ The archive area and section for each package should be
+ specified in the package's <tt>Section</tt> control record (see
+ <ref id="f-Section">). However, the maintainer of the Debian
+ archive may override this selection to ensure the consistency of
+ the Debian distribution. The <tt>Section</tt> field should be
+ of the form:
<list compact="compact">
<item>
<em>section</em> if the package is in the
- <em>main</em> category,
+ <em>main</em> distribution area,
</item>
<item>
- <em>segment/section</em> if the package is in
+ <em>area/section</em> if the package is in
the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em>
distribution areas.
</item>
@@ -9006,9 +9010,10 @@ install-info --quiet --remove /usr/share/info/foobar.info
</p>
<p>
- Packages in the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em> categories
- should state in the copyright file that the package is not part
- of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and briefly explain why.
+ Packages in the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em> archive
+ areas should state in the copyright file that the package is not
+ part of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and briefly explain
+ why.
</p>
<p>
--
Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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