Re: free source code which requires non-free tools to build (dscaler modules for tvtime)

[Billy Biggs <vektor@dumbterm.net>]

David Starner (dvdeug@email.ro):

> > * That which is in main must be buildable and usable solely with
> > packages also in main (IOW, main is a "closure");
> 
> Really? Does that mean that the Windows specific parts of GCC must be
> removed from the tarball? Or does it only apply to programs, so if
> coreutils provides a 1k helper program that only compiles on OpenBSD,
> we can't ship an unaltered source tarball? At the very least, I'm sure
> I can find DOS batch files and other build programs designed to run on
> DOS/Windows in Debian. It seems rather excessive to say that every bit
> of code in Debian must be compilable on Debian; as long as it's free,
> and the code we're using is buildable and usable soley with packages
> in main, why is the other (free) code an issue?

  You have it backwards.  The intention of the statement as I understood
it is that all binaries shipped must be buildable.  Shipping source code
that doesn't build on Debian doesn't seem obviously non-free.

  -Billy