Bug#904302: Whether vendor-specific patch series should be permitted in the archive
> The concrete question that I am asking the committee to decide, in my
> capacity as a Policy delegate, is whether or not vendor-specific patch
> series should be permitted in the Debian archive.
I can see that a user might find it surprising that a source package is
unpacked differently on different systems and I agree that it is better that
distro-specific patches bubble up the chain towards upstreams. I agree that
maintainers should avoid setting elephant traps.
It is not, however, within Debian's remit to decide what dpkg in a
derivative distribution does. It is already within the power of the
derivative to accept or reject such patches and they have chosen to accept
these patches. If a derivative does not wish to apply such patches, then
they should simply have dpkg-source not apply them or remove the series file
at package import stage. This is the derivative's choice, not Debian's.
Debian does not micromanage its maintainers and Debian most certainly does
not tell derivatives what to do; however, that is precisely what this
proposal is requesting. Debian should not seek to prevent maintainers doing
something that they have agreed to do in collaboration with downstreams. One
might find vendor.series to be a poor technical solution, but then those who
find it abhorrent might seek to find a better one, rather than attempt to
resort to administrative power.
Essentially, this is a request that the TC overrule both Debian maintainers
*and* derivative maintainers in what they have agreed as a workflow that
obviously works for them. Today, Debian decides to not allow
debian/patches/vendor.series, then tomorrow, a derivative patches dpkg-
source and Debian is asked to decide whether debian/patches/vendor-dammit-i-
want-these-patches-applied.series is allowed in the source package.
The TC has power under §6.1.4 to overrule a developer. It has no power to
overrule a derivative but that is what is really what is being requested.
(Footnote: Sean has referred this under §6.1.3, requesting a decision but
since this is overriding a (set of) maintainer(s) that includes those using
vendor.series and the dpkg maintainers, I assume §6.1.4 applies.)
Stuart
--
Stuart Prescott http://www.nanonanonano.net/ stuart@nanonanonano.net
Debian Developer http://www.debian.org/ stuart@debian.org
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