The easy solution would just be allow both. Either only a single file with verbatim text or an SPDX document with licenses in a separate folder.
Regards,
Stephan
On Tuesday, February 8, 2022 12:53:22 PM EST Stephan Lachnit wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 5:00 PM Scott Kitterman <debian@kitterman.com> wrote:
> > Since Debian policy requires verbatim copies of licenses (or links to
> > /usr/
> > share/common-licenses), I think any policy compliant debian/copyright will
> > have to be human readable, but I'm not that familiar with SPDX, so maybe
> > it
> > will surprise me.
>
> You can find an example in my initial mail [1].
>
> > I would be good to understand how this proposal supports Debian Policy.
>
> It would require a minor change: putting the verbatim license texts in
> a single file is not possible anymore. But I don't why just copying
> the licenses to "/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/licenses/LICENSE" in addition
> to the SPDX formatted debian/copyright would be any worse than the
> current way.
>
>
> Regards,
> Stephan
>
> [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2022/01/msg00309.html
Personally, I don't view that as a minor change.
I think before starting a DEP on this you ought to work out the policy
implications. Currently any package using your proposed approach would be
instantly RC buggy.
Scott K