Re: where do NEW packages go?
On May 19, Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
> Someone thinks adding an OS in Debian is the same as adding the 25th editor.
Debian is an operating system that currently runs on at least 11
different ports of the Linux kernel, as well as non-Linux kernels and
"non-kernels".
Now, if there *needs* to be a /hurd directory for the Hurd
non-kernel/microkernel/whatever to work as the basis for a port of the
Debian operating system, then that needs to be taken up with the
policy group so the appropriate amendments to the FHS can be made
(either to the FHS itself or as exceptions in Debian policy that only
apply to those ports). Same deal if there *needs* to be a /libexec
for various BSD ports. But it makes about as much sense to require
/libexec or /hurd on a Linux port as it does to require the kernel to
be called "vmlinux" when it's Debian/OpenBSD.
The point of Debian is to have "userland" as similar as possible on
all Debian systems; Apache should always be in the same place whether
you're running Debian on Linux/m68k or Linux/MIPS or FreeBSD or the
Hurd. That's what standards are for. I want to be able to log into a
Debian Hurd system and not need to know that it's a Hurd system unless
I want to do special "Hurd things" that can't be done on other Debian
systems, just like I can log onto a Debian/m68k or Debian/Alpha box
and have everything "just work" unless I need to do something
hardware-specific.
Now, if the Hurd people want to develop an operating system that
follows the GNU Coding Standards to the letter, they're welcome to
create TruGNU Hurd or something like that. But something that follows
the GNU Coding Standards to the letter isn't Debian, and shouldn't be
called Debian, and probably doesn't need to be hosted by Debian (for
everyone's sanity, and to minimize confusion). OTOH, if the Hurd
people want to create a Debian-based operating system for the Hurd,
and they want to make it "look" like Debian, there's no reason for it
not to be Debian.
BTW, it's the height of sophistry to say that GNU's Not Unix and thus
not "Unix-like" yet acknowledge that it complies with POSIX, which is
"Unix-like" - in fact, it is the core of Unix, particularly now that
it [as of 2001] incorporates the Single Unix Specification v3.
Chris
--
Chris Lawrence <chris@lordsutch.com> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/
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