Re: Of the use of native packages for programs not specific to Debian.
Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 04, 2009 at 01:31:40AM +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
>> Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> writes:
>>> Le Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 12:47:44PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst a écrit :
>>>> I know it is fancy and modern to think that Debian native packages
>>>> should only be used for things that are specific to the Debian
>>>> infrastructure, but there is nothing in policy that requires that,
>> To be clear (and I know you probably already know this): just because
>> some practice is not explicitly mentioned in Policy, does not mean there
>> is no good way to decide whether or not it's good practice.
>
> True. However, if something is not explicitly forbidden by Policy (and
> this isn't), and it does not cause (obvious) harm to Debian as a whole
> (which this doesn't), there is no good reason why people should pretend
> it's a bad idea.
This sounds very wrong, as if it would be ok to cause harm to some part
of Debian when it's not forbidden in Policy.
I also don't agree that there are no good reasons why it's a bad idea.
>> As far as whether this idea is “modern”, I don't know whether “more than
>> 8 years” is outside that range for an operating system only 16 years
>> old, but the consensus on this 2001-01 ‘debian-mentors’ thread
>> <URL:http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2001/01/msg00191.html> seems
>> to be that packages should be native only if the package is specific to
>> the Debian infrastructure.
>
> That thread has four people stating the downsides of making a package a
> native package; however, several of them also explicitly state the
> opinion that making a package native is perfectly okay, after having
> considered those downsides. That's pretty much what I was saying in my
> previous mail.
Yes, though only after considering all the downsides, including having
these discussions and people requesting you to reconsider from time to time.
Cheers
Luk
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