Re: request for Technical Committee ruling on Bug #109436

[branden@deadbeast.net (Branden Robinson)]

On Thu, Aug 23, 2001 at 11:17:39AM -0400, Raul Miller wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 23, 2001 at 09:57:45AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > Why is the right thing to do not to consider asking the archive
> > maintainers to grant my request?
> 
> Because this makes it rather difficult to distinguish between the right
> tarball and the wrong one.

I would suggest that what the katie software currently does is the right
thing in the majority of cases.  But once in a while, circumstances will
arise that require replacement of an .orig.tar.gz without a rename.  I
am asking for official recognition of that fact as a general principle,
and in this specific case I am asking for the scenario at issue in
#109436 to be regarded as such an exceptional case, because it is Debian
policy that is compelling me to change the upstream sources.

In other words, if I were making a purely discretionary change to the
source package in my capacity as a package maintainer, I wouldn't have a
problem with the archive maintainers' refusal.  I would just defer the
change to the next upstream release and "diff" around it in the
meantime.  (In practice, this happens quite regularly with Debian
packages, as patches we submit upstream get incorporated into new
upstream versions.)

> Sure, you can tell a human "look for the file with this number of bytes",
> but a lot of this stuff is automated.

I don't think the archive maintainers would assert (though it may be
wise to ask them) in this case that the .orig.tar.gz that needs to be
replaced, and the replacement, are difficult to distinguish.  One is
already in the pool, the other is in incoming.  The new one is also
referenced by the 4.1.0-3 .dsc file in incoming.  Needless to say, I am
willing to furnish them with whatever additional information they may
need to fulfill my request.

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |       Convictions are more dangerous
Debian GNU/Linux                   |       enemies of truth than lies.
branden@deadbeast.net              |       -- Friedrich Nietzsche
http://www.deadbeast.net/~branden/ |