Re: Non-free, Contrib and CDs (Was Re: GNU Win32? Not anymore.)
On Jul 16, Bill Mitchell wrote
> On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Lalo Martins wrote:
>
> > -Depprobl (free stuff that depends on non-free stuff, like motif apps)*
>
> -Dep-prob (better name?)
No, sounds like it probes something. Maybe "depend-p"?
> Also, I've seen complaints that dselect couldn't handle installing
> some areas (contrib? non-US?). I think I've also seen complaints
> that there were problems uploading non-US packages. Perhaps it would
> be useful to couple a redo of "non-free" and "contrib" with regularization
> of the directory structure on ftp sites and their expected locations on
> user systems. Perhaps something like the following:
>
> On a Debian FTP site or mirror (US and Non-US):
> Debian-X.Y --> codename
> codename/
> Debian-X.Y/ # main distribution
> Non-US/ # would be empty, or README only, in U.S.
> No-profit/ # no resale for profit
> ... # the rest of the stuff from above
>
> The subdirs below codename/ would all have a consistent structure
> (source, doc, binary-{arch}, etc).
Not exactly. Debian-X.Y/*/ are still split into sections, while others have
packages directly. What about: (for ftp, CDs, user's local systems alike)
(something/)
Debian-X.Y -> codename
codename/
codename/ # main distribution; this could also be called
# "main", "free" or "debian"
*/ # source, doc, binary-*
*/ # sections
non-free/ # everything else
README/ # has some files explaining non-free
*/ # source, doc, binary-*
No-profit/ # can't be sold for profit
... # other "sections" of non-free
local/ # on a user's box, local stuff; on a CD, vendor
# additions; on ftp, local releases (why?)
# any main or non-free section may be present
# ONLY on user machines:
updates/ # files here take precedence
This can make it hard to burn non-official CDs, I don't know - but it's
consistent, and consistence is one of the reasons I use Debian in the first
place.
Then _any_ non-desired directory is replaced with a symlink to ../README and
we're gone.
dselect, deity etc would search first in updates, then local; then it
figures if the section is a free or non-free one and checks accorddingly on
free or non-free.
[]s,
|alo
+----
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