Re: Approached DouDouLinux developers
On 01/29/2014 05:58 AM, Andreas Tille wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 09:12:08PM +0100, Per Andersson wrote:
>> My direct thoughts regarding this was about how small or specific can a package
>> be in order to be uploaded to the Debian archive.
>
> I think I perfectly understood your question and IMHO it is perfectly
> answered by "Everything that is used and has a free license." and I
> really mean this literally. There is no point in excluding something
> for the pure artificial reason that there will be not so "much"
> (whatever measure of much you might use) users. The pure fact that some
> package is needed by a Debian devivative (DouDouLinux or whatever) is a
> pretty good reason to maintain the package inside Debian.
While I agree there's no point in excluding small/overly-specific
packages, there's another way to read that question:
If you see needless fragmentation upstream into too-specific packages
that don't really need to be split, you should consider consolidating
them. Each package does carry its own overhead on the Debian
infrastructure, so it's good to pick the "right size" for a package. If
you submit an RFP/ITP for a package that developers see as overly
specific / small, it will draw criticism (e.g. packaging a single shell
script).
As for where that line is drawn, that's a judgement call. I've given one
example I'm certain would be too small, but it's pretty hard to say
without dealing with the specifics of each case.
Ben
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