--- Begin Message ---
Package: developers-reference
Version: 3.4.1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
Developer reference section 4.6.1 deals with «sections», meaning main,
contrib and non-free. They are regarded as «Archive areas» in Debian
Policy 2.2, where they are defined.
I am attaching a patch correcting this.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-vserver-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
diff --git a/pkgs.dbk b/pkgs.dbk
index e9b058a..2ba40aa 100644
--- a/pkgs.dbk
+++ b/pkgs.dbk
@@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ url="&url-bts-devel;#maintincorrect"></ulink>.
<para>
Note that the <literal>Section</literal> field describes both the section as
well as the subsection, which are described in <xref
-linkend="archive-sections"/> . If the section is main, it should be omitted.
+linkend="archive-areas"/> . If the archive area is main, it should be omitted.
The list of allowable subsections can be found in <ulink
url="&url-debian-policy;ch-archive.html#s-subsections"></ulink>.
</para>
diff --git a/resources.dbk b/resources.dbk
index 45aeaf1..de937f5 100644
--- a/resources.dbk
+++ b/resources.dbk
@@ -469,18 +469,18 @@ the disk images and some essential pieces of documentation required for
installing the Debian distribution on a specific architecture
(<filename>disks-i386</filename>, <filename>disks-m68k</filename>, etc.).
</para>
-<section id="archive-sections">
-<title>Sections</title>
+<section id="archive-areas">
+<title>Archive areas</title>
<para>
-The <literal>main</literal> section of the Debian archive is what makes up
+The <literal>main</literal> area of the Debian archive is what makes up
the <emphasis role="strong">official &debian-formal; distribution</emphasis>.
-The <literal>main</literal> section is official because it fully complies
-with all our guidelines. The other two sections do not, to different degrees;
+The <literal>main</literal> archive area is official because it fully complies
+with all our guidelines. The other two archive areas do not, to different degrees;
as such, they are <emphasis role="strong">not</emphasis> officially part of
&debian-formal;.
</para>
<para>
-Every package in the main section must fully comply with the <ulink
+Every package in the main archive area must fully comply with the <ulink
url="&url-dfsg;">Debian Free Software
Guidelines</ulink> (DFSG) and with all other policy requirements as described
in the <ulink url="&url-debian-policy;">Debian Policy
@@ -488,29 +488,29 @@ Manual</ulink>. The DFSG is our definition of “free software.” Check out
the Debian Policy Manual for details.
</para>
<para>
-Packages in the <literal>contrib</literal> section have to comply with the
+Packages in the <literal>contrib</literal> archive area have to comply with the
DFSG, but may fail other requirements. For instance, they may depend on
non-free packages.
</para>
<para>
Packages which do not conform to the DFSG are placed in the
-<literal>non-free</literal> section. These packages are not considered as
+<literal>non-free</literal> archive area. These packages are not considered as
part of the Debian distribution, though we support their use, and we provide
infrastructure (such as our bug-tracking system and mailing lists) for non-free
software packages.
</para>
<para>
The <ulink url="&url-debian-policy;">Debian Policy
-Manual</ulink> contains a more exact definition of the three sections. The
+Manual</ulink> contains a more exact definition of the three archive areas. The
above discussion is just an introduction.
</para>
<para>
-The separation of the three sections at the top-level of the archive is
+The separation of the three areas at the top-level of the archive is
important for all people who want to distribute Debian, either via FTP servers
on the Internet or on CD-ROMs: by distributing only the
-<literal>main</literal> and <literal>contrib</literal> sections, one can
+<literal>main</literal> and <literal>contrib</literal> areas, one can
avoid any legal risks. Some packages in the <literal>non-free</literal>
-section do not allow commercial distribution, for example.
+archive area do not allow commercial distribution, for example.
</para>
<para>
On the other hand, a CD-ROM vendor could easily check the individual package
@@ -519,7 +519,9 @@ on the CD-ROMs as it's allowed to. (Since this varies greatly from vendor to
vendor, this job can't be done by the Debian developers.)
</para>
<para>
-Note that the term section is also used to refer to categories which simplify
+Note that some documentation still uses the term section to refer to
+archive areas. This term is being phased out to avoid confusion with
+the one used to categorize and simplify
the organization and browsing of available packages, e.g.
<literal>admin</literal>, <literal>net</literal>,
<literal>utils</literal> etc. Once upon a time, these sections (subsections,
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
On 06/07/09 at 13:05 -0500, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Package: developers-reference
> Version: 3.4.1
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
>
> Developer reference section 4.6.1 deals with «sections», meaning main,
> contrib and non-free. They are regarded as «Archive areas» in Debian
> Policy 2.2, where they are defined.
>
> I am attaching a patch correcting this.
Hi Gunnar,
The fact that the name "sections" is confusing inside Debian is a
long-term that I don't intend to fix by updating developers-reference. I
was told on IRC that "archive area" (in policy) was chosen without
real discussion, and I'm sure that many people use "sections" instead of
"archive area".
If you are interested in that problem, maybe you should raise that topic
on debian-devel@, so that we can finally decide on how we should all
call our sections/archive areas.
I am closing this bug report for now, feel free to re-open once
consensus has been reached on what we should replace "sections" with.
--
| Lucas Nussbaum
| lucas@lucas-nussbaum.net http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
| jabber: lucas@nussbaum.fr GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |
--- End Message ---