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RE: Must I compile a palm-program to include in deb?



On Wed, 13 Dec 2000, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:

> > I'd like to use the provided viewer.prc.  I think it's ok, because
> > it's not supposed to run on debian.  By the way, is there a policy
> > that everything must be built from sources in debian?  I guess it
> > should be, but I havent found it.
> 
> apt-get install debian-policy packaging-manual
> cd /usr/share/doc/debian-policy # or packaging-manual
> read files
> 
> quick summation: every package in Debian must be buildable within Debian. 
> Otherwise it is non-free (binary only).  prc files may be an exception -- they
> could reasonably be treated as data.  However, if your package in main contains
> a non-free palm package, I would be loath to consider your package free.

I, Hamish, and a few others were recently working out a similar concern
which does not appear to be specifically addressed by Debian so far:
firmware files.

I do not think these .prc files could be treated as data, because they are
applications which run on the Palm? However, my feeling is that you would
not have to compile these from source, with a Palm cross-compiler, but the
source for these programs still needs to follow DFSG in order to be in
Debian.

Unfortunately I do not know your package details well enough to offer any
better advice.

But: Generally if your package is still useful without having these
specific .prc files, then you package can still go into main and the
.prc files can go into non-free if that is the case, and your package
can suggest them.




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