Bug#1029211: debian-policy: Add mention of the new non-free-firmware archive area
Package: debian-policy
Version: 4.6.2.0
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
It has been four months since the General Resolution 2022/vote_003 was
voted¹, but it has not yet been completely adopted. The archive area
was created and at least a package was uploaded to it in October, but
it has not seen further movement. Two days ago, a call to action for
moving packages was sent by Cyril Brulebois², and I just sent a mail
checking for other places where it should be included³.
¹ https://www.debian.org/vote/2022/vote_003
² https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2023/01/msg00150.html
³ https://lists.debian.org/debian-project/2023/01/msg00018.html
To my surprise, the non-free-firmware archive area has not yet been
discussed for inclusion in the Policy.
I am (now!) aware there is a clear process to get changes included in
the Policy, but this is the first time I do this, so please excuse me
for jumping all the way to "State D: Wording proposed" (of course, my
words can be checked and improved, particularly given I'm not a native
English speaker).
⁴ https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-process.html
I am suggesting the following patch, which I'm attaching to this bug
report, and also uploaded them to my fork of debian-policy in Salsa:
https://salsa.debian.org/gwolf/policy/-/commit/79c58a40065c01f56850f86e883d8fa482c7cca0
Thank you very much for considering this!
-- System Information:
Debian Release: bookworm/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.0.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
debian-policy depends on no packages.
Versions of packages debian-policy recommends:
ii libjs-sphinxdoc 5.3.0-3
Versions of packages debian-policy suggests:
pn doc-base <none>
-- no debconf information
diff --git a/policy/ch-archive.rst b/policy/ch-archive.rst
index ab04261..15b9343 100644
--- a/policy/ch-archive.rst
+++ b/policy/ch-archive.rst
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ The aims of this are:
The *main* archive area forms the *Debian distribution*.
-Packages in the other archive areas (``contrib``, ``non-free``) 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 mailing lists). This Debian Policy Manual applies to these
-packages as well.
+Packages in the other archive areas (``non-free-firmware``,
+``contrib``, ``non-free``) 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 mailing lists). This
+Debian Policy Manual applies to these packages as well.
.. _s-dfsg:
@@ -130,6 +130,27 @@ In addition, the packages in *main*
- must meet all policy requirements presented in this manual.
+.. _s-non-free-firmware:
+
+The non-free-firmware archive area
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The *non-free-firmware* archive area contains packages providing
+firmware needed to initialize, use or keep updated hardware required
+by our users, typically necessary for important functions to be
+available (i.e. wireless network connectivity) or for fixing security
+defects in hardware (i.e. CPU microcode updates). Packages in this
+archive may not comply with all of the policy requirements in this
+manual due to lack of source code availability, restrictions on
+modification or other limitations.
+
+Packages in *non-free-firmware*
+
+- must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them, and
+
+ - must meet all policy requiremens presented in this manual that it
+ is possible for them to meet.
+
.. _s-contrib:
The contrib archive area
@@ -261,8 +282,8 @@ prohibited" and "distribution restricted".
Sections
--------
-The packages in the archive areas *main*, *contrib* and *non-free* are
-grouped further into *sections* to simplify handling.
+The packages in the archive areas *main*, *non-free-firmware*, *contrib*
+and *non-free* are grouped further into *sections* to simplify handling.
The archive area and section for each package should be specified in the
package's ``Section`` control record (see
@@ -272,8 +293,8 @@ the Debian distribution. The ``Section`` field should be of the form:
- *section* if the package is in the *main* archive area,
-- *area/section* if the package is in the *contrib* or *non-free*
- archive areas.
+- *area/section* if the package is in the *non-free-firmware*, *contrib*
+ or *non-free* archive areas.
The Debian archive maintainers provide the authoritative list of
sections. At present, they are: admin, cli-mono, comm, database, debug,
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