Re: 2.6.21 branched and changes for .22
On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 05:39:26PM +0200, Bastian Blank wrote:
> On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 02:28:29PM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 10:51:51PM +0200, Bastian Blank wrote:
> > > - Drop the ability to get all revisions from the patch.
> > Not an option. This is required for GPL compliance at release time.
> Please explain.
The GPL requires that we provide source corresponding to the binaries we
ship. Kernel binaries are shipped in d-i images which are not rebuilt from
source each time the kernel is updated (and should not *have* to be rebuilt
from source each time, though it is sometimes beneficial to do so).
The source code for these images is in the linux-2.6 package (plus some
other "build scripts" in the form of the debian-installer package and the
linux-kernel-di-* packages). For sarge and for etch, the GPL requirements
have been satisfied by pointing to the fact that the source for previous
kernel images can be reconstituted from the current source by trivial means.
If it's no longer possible to reconstitute previous patchlevels of the
package, we don't have GPL compliance at any point when the d-i packages, or
the d-i images, are not up-to-date with the kernel packages (which is
desirable to allow at various points in the life of a stable release),
unless we carry around stale copies of the kernel packages in the archive
for this reason alone.
Cheers,
--
Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org http://www.debian.org/
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