Re: [Pkg-scala-maint] Binary blobs in source packages
On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 10:45:21AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 07:29:23PM +0100, Mehdi Dogguy wrote:
> > > I think the traditional expectation here is that compilers will do
> > > their initial bootstrap using an out-of-archive binary, and that once
> > > in the archive, they'll be maintained using a self-build-depends
> > > instead.
>
> > You mean having a circular build-dependency?
>
> <shrug> It's how self-hosting compilers work. That's how the gcc package
> works, too. :)
GCC can be built using any other C compiler, though, so there's no freeness
or security issue (Ken Thompson can explain why this is important).
In some cases (like Smalltalk) this degenerates into a binary quine rather
than providing real source.
Do you remember my joke package "goodbye" a while ago? One of ideas in the
resulting discussion was to put a quoted ELF object into debian/rules, that
compiles itself from a provided source (so the letter of the Policy and DFSG
is fulfilled), doing some Ken Thompsonese modifications on the way -- hey,
these are allowed in the archive as required by compilers you're talking
about. Somehow, this idea met the most revulsion, I wonder why.
--
1KB // Yo momma uses IPv4!
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