Re: How to check why a package is in contrib

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 07:44:08PM +0200, Bastien ROUCARIES a écrit :
> 
> I was trying to check why a package was in contrib (jabref), and I could not 
> find a means to do that automatically. 
> 
> Could we add an automatic mechanism based on package description, for getting 
> the reason, like for instance, why-contrib: reason

Dear Bastien,

starting from version 3.8.0, our Policy states:

  ‘Packages in the contrib or non-free archive areas should state in the
  copyright file that the package is not part of the Debian GNU/Linux
  distribution and briefly explain why.’

Since jabref has a Standards-Version of 3.8.0, I think that you can submit a
bug report to ask the maintainers to add this information.

For the packages using a machine-readable Debian copyright file, I propose to
put this kind of information in a field that can for instance be called
‘Disclaimer’. If this format gets popular, a Lintian check will be trivial to
write, to ensure that contrib and non-free packages include the statement
recommended by the Policy. 

Have a nice day,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan