Re: Bug#592839: dpkg-source option to remove files on unpack: debian/source/remove-files

[Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@web.de>]

David Claughton <dave@eclecticdave.com> writes:

> On 13/08/10 17:58, Russ Allbery wrote:
>> Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> writes:
>> 
>>> As suggested by Ian on -devel (see attachment), it would be nice to have
>>> a way to remove files during unpack of a source package to hide non-free
>>> files from our users without stripping them from the original tarball.
>> 
>>> I also prefer this approach over repacking upstream files so let's
>>> implement this feature.
>> 
>> I'm pretty sure ftp-master isn't going to allow source packages with
>> non-free content in the main archive regardless of whether that content is
>> hidden on unpack (I certainly wouldn't if I were them), so implementing
>> this is kind of pointless for Debian.
>> 
>
> Another use-case might be to remove "convenience copies" of system
> libraries.  Might be useful (e.g. for security reasons) to be able to
> guarantee that this code isn't being accidentally used by a build (in a
> way that can be easily checked by a script).
>
> Cheers,
>
> 	David.

And I ask again: How does that differ from deleting them in
debian/rules?

Legally that should be the same. And practically you would have the
useless files on the initial source unpack but they would be gone when
debian/rules is invoked the first time. dpkg-source -x could run the
clean target by default to make the files disapear directly.

MfG
        Goswin