Re: A real case.
> I think I need a real case to explain the problem with OS distribution
> and /opt.
> Although I've changed the names of the program and the library, this is
> a real case: XFmail and xforms library: I'm not XFmail author, but I've
> tryed several times to package it, never beeing able to, because I
> wasn't running unstable.
>
> -------------------
[I'm, summerising the rest of the 10 page document to these 4 sentencies]:
Somebody wants to release a stable package, that depends on
libraries that live only in unstable. As that somebody is the
author, he thinks he's got more right to make an stable package
that depends on unstable libraries than others.
Did I summerise that correctly? (I didn't read all of the 10 page document)
My comment would be:
Any programmee that uses libraries from unstable is infact itself unstable
too. (Use a library, you use code that come from that library, and that
code we consider "unstable", if the librarie comes from unstable and thus
hasn't been tested as much as stable).
Thus, why on earth does the author think his package belongs in stable?
It's well and truley unstable.
Also, I skanned the text a bit for keywords, and saw the author apparenlty
does distribute his work in rpm?????
Why on earth can he do that, as I'm sure redhad uses the same stratagy.
One think the author could do is to package up
- a statically linked version of his programme, and distribute it amongst
his users. We at debian then don't really care about that, though.
- the libraries he so much needs, and make them libc5 versions.
Again, we at debian don't really care about them.
Oh, and I rember seeing XFmail. Isn't that a free programme?
(Well, I hear you say it had something to do with Xforms, but never
mind that). So, what is the problem with anybody else packaging it
up for unstable[1]?
>
> this could be a message coming from an author wishing to see his work
> running on debian.
I'm sure that if that message is then posted to debian-devel, and
the programme is usefull, there will be developpers that show up and
package up his programme for unstable.
> In the realty XFmail's author said that he would not release a debian
> package, and I didn't like that.
I don't think gcc's authors are releasing debian packages of gcc.
But that's OK, as there are others willing to compile it for debian.
To summerise: a programme that has just been released by the author
doesn't belong in stable! It belongs in unstable. If the author
doesn't run unstable, then s/he should find somebody else who does
run unstbale.
[1] Note that I'm handing out logins on my libc6 machine for people to
compile libc6 packages. One draw-back: I don't install the non-free
libraries, and only very sparingly non-free programmes. So, XForms-dependant
programmes cannot be compiled on my system.
--
joost witteveen, joostje@debian.org
#!/usr/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj
$/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1
lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)
#what's this? see http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/
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