Bug#904302: Whether vendor-specific patch series should be permitted in the archive

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>]

]] Tollef Fog Heen 

> ]] Tollef Fog Heen 
>
> That turned out to be in the rather more distant future than I
> intended.  Apologies about that.

… and again.

Diff from previous one:

- Included separate source packages as an alternative to build time
  patching.
- Fixed typo.

I have not included the language about release criticalness of bugs,
due to OdyX' comment about that being the domain of the release team,
not policy.

I hope to call for a vote on this by the end of the week.

Second draft:

=== DRAFT Resolution ===

Vendor-specific patch series are a feature of dpkg that can be used to
apply a different series of quilt patches when the source package is
unpacked on different systems.  Since Debian source packages are usually
treated as a pure transport format (like tar), this property can cause
confusion and frustration for users.  Examples could be if only the
series file for one vendor is updated, or a source package is unpacked
on one system and then transferred to a system with a different vendor
for debugging.

The Committee recognises that there is a need for packages to behave
differently when built on different distributions, but this should be
done by using different source packages, or as part of the build
process, using current and future practices such as patches with
conditional behaviour, patching of files during the build, rather than
at source unpacking time.

Since this feature is used by several packages today, we need a
reasonable transition period.  They will be considered buggy from when
this resolution is accepted, but it will not be considered severe enough
to warrant immediate removal from Debian.  After Buster is released, the
presence of a vender-specific patch series will be a violation of a MUST
directive in Debian policy.

The Committee therefore resolves that:

1. Any use of dpkg's vendor-specific patch series feature is a bug for
   packages in the Debian archive (including contrib and non-free).

   This should be implemented in Debian Policy by declaring that a
   package SHOULD NOT contain a non-default series file.

2. After Buster is released, use of the vendor-specific patch series
   feature is forbidden in the Debian archive.

   This should be implemented in Debian Policy by declaring that a
   package MUST NOT contain a non-default series file.

=== End DRAFT Resolution ===

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are