Re: Wolfram Research Debian Package Submission
Control: tags 1032150 wontfix
Hello Blake,
(Dropping several mails from CC, as those are the wrong adressees for
the topic; Adding the ITP bug though, as the discussion should happen
there.)
On Fri, Jan 12, 2024 at 09:42:18AM -0600, Blake Gilbert wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My name is Blake Gilbert and I work in the partnerships group at
> Wolfram Research.
>
> I am reaching out to you regarding a recent package submission by our
> Engine Connectivity Engineering team. We submitted the package CDImage
> M-LINUX-WolframEngine.DEB a few months ago to include Wolfram Engine
> in Debian packages, and I wanted to see if there was some way to help
> move this project forward. Would you be able to assist with this
> process or know the proper person to connect to?
As elbrus mentioned already, please consult the resources on
https://mentors.debian.net/intro-maintainers/ on packaing, and as
you are upstream, this page is important too:
https://wiki.debian.org/UpstreamGuide
After seeing your mail I was curious and downloaded the deb you've
linked in #1032150, and examined it's content.
Unfortunatly, your package will need a lots of refactoring until it
will be fit for inclusion into Debian. Please consult the linked
resources above, and the documents that are linked there, especially
the Debian Policy Manual)
Here are two examples:
- you're shipping everyhing in /opt,
- the vendoring of system libraries (eg libssh, but it seems you are
shipping everything you need vendored, as your package Depends:
on nothing)
But there is even a more severe problem, I would even say this makes
this bug "wontfix" until this has been resolved.
The package's d/copyright has:
(...)
Prohibited Uses
All uses of the Software and other elements of the Free Engine not
specifically allowed under these terms or otherwise set forth in
alternative or supplemental license agreements or terms of use are
prohibited, including, without limitation:
(...)
distributing, publishing, transferring, sublicensing, lending,
leasing, renting or otherwise making available any portion of the
Free Engine, including collections of data;
copying or allowing copying of the Free Engine or any elements of the
Free Engine, except as permitted for the maintenance of a single
archival copy of the Engine;
Please note the usual IANAL disclaimer, but doesn't this make it
legally impossible for Debian to include the package into our
archives? Even non-free requires *at least* the permission for
(re-)distribution and all those associated rights you need that you
actually can, technically, do the (re)distribution?
I understand that your software is non-free and commercial in
nature, and that you do not want to publish the source code.
However, not having the source code will make it impossible for
Debian to properly maintain the software in Debian [1], especially if
Wolfram Alpha loses interest in maintaining it or if there are
urgent problems to be fixed.
[1] even if non-free is not officially part of Debian, we still
want to give our users a good experience -- see our Social Contract.
To be honest with you: many people in Debian (including me) will not
sponsor packages, when there is no source available, so even if you
invest a lot of time into brining the package on a more
suitable-for-Debian quality level, there will be no guarantee that
your package will be accepted in the end.
Other thoughts:
- you can always host your own Debian archives, if you wish so, and
maintain the package outside of Debian;
- Another approach could be to have an package in Debian, which will
download and install e.g to the users directory -- for example
this is how the package "steam-installer" does it to install Steam.)
--
tobi
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