Re: Bug#515856: Debian Policy 4.1.4.0 released
Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu> writes:
> I think additional information in README.source is a very helpful thing
> to have. However, my *personal* policy for sponsoring a package is that
> I will not sponsor a package that comes without a method that enables me
> automatically to reproduce the upstream source tarball. Some vague
> advise in README.source like "download from xyz, check file abc, remove
> def, create a tarball with name mno_ver" is IMHO not acceptable. The
> fact that the get-orig-source was mentioned in policy enabled to give
> some pointer to a documented way to provide this code.
> After the removal I will surely stick to my personal policy but for an
> explanation who to implement it in a somehow standardized way I need do
> add extra information now.
You would already have to add some extra information since the Policy text
was ambiguous. Different people interpreted it differently; for instance,
whether it downloaded the *current* orig.tar.gz file or the one for the
next upstream release.
> As I said before I'm fine with the removal from debian/rules but we
> should somehow settle with some default recommendation that avoids that
> every developer invents its own way to obtain the upstream source (if
> uscan does not work and I'm talking only about this case).
I don't think agree that this is something Debian *needs*, and I
personally don't really agree with your sponsorship rule and wouldn't
apply that rule myself. (You're of course free to apply any restrictions
you want to what packages you're willing to sponsor.) I can see how it's
very *useful* to automate a common operation like updating to a new
version of upstream, but I wouldn't make it a requirement, and I also
don't think this fairly unusual edge case requires standardization.
That said, I think guidance for good practices for edge cases is always
useful if someone wants to write it up, and the Developer's Reference
seems like a good place to accumulate such things.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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