Re: O: Gnus -- A versatile News and mailing list reader for Emacsen.
* James Vega <jamessan@debian.org> [060424 18:36]:
> > On the other hand a different source package name has also a specific
> > meaning. It means it is a different source package, which means it is
> > a differnt upstream or a different package. Unless you want to fork
> > the package or add other files, changing the source name is deceptive.
>
> Isn't it already a fork? The source package is not the same as the one
> being shipped by upstream. Hence Manoj's desire to use a different source
> package name to correctly convey the fact that the source package is not
> what is being shipped by upstream, but a modified version that meets the
> requirements of the DFSG. How is it deceptive to rename the source
> package when it is _not_ the same as the upstream source?
For some meaning of fork, every Debian package is a fork of upstream.
To make clear what is changed by Debian and what is not, we use a
.orig.tar.gz and a .diff.gz for such software, with the .orig.tar.gz
being stuff from upstream, and .diff.gz being the things added/changed
by Debian.
Ideally the .orig.tar.gz is just a file upstream made. But often that
is not possible, for example because:
- upstream has no .tar.gz but a .tar.bz
-> just recompress without changing the .tar part
- upstream has no .tar.* but e.g. a .zip
-> create a .tar.gz yourself from the content of the .zip
- upstream .tar is broken in a way dpkg-source -x cannot fix it.
(no idea what dpkg-source currently is able to fix, unpacking
suid-root binaries when run by root might be a possibility)
-> repack .tar.gz fixing it
- upstream includes "genuinely useless cruft" which removal
causes "significant space savings" (Imagine some 20k tool
containing 50M screenshots of how cool it is once you got
it compiled)
-> repack it removing that stuff
- upstream includes thing we cannot distribute without
breaking laws or SC ยง1
-> repack it removing that stuff
Note that in all that cases the .orig.tar.gz only contains stuff
upstream released, with only files packaged in another form of
archive or stuff removed, nothing new.
Such a stripped down archive will most likely not have a working
build system and some stale references to stuff no longer contained,
which can and has to be cleaned up in the .diff.gz (at least for the
stuff relevant stuff, no need to patch a build script for DOS)
If you in contrast choose to add or modify things in the .orig.tar.gz,
you are in this (perhaps a bit personally coloured) view no longer
making changes within Debian, but are creating a new fork on the
upstream side and are packaging your own fork.
Hochachtungsvoll,
Bernhard R. Link
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