Re: Policy on Binary Firmware Fetching in Main (e.g. foo2zjs)
Stephen Gran wrote:
does getweb function correctly if the external files are unable to be
downloaded?
That's not a very useful question - does a web browser function
'correctly' when it gets a 404? It depends entirely on what you mean by
correctly, and that starts to feel like there's no bright line test for
it.
this analogy does not apply to the thought experiment. the question in my
email was used as a logical starting point for the entire paragraph, and
is quite meaningless out of context. to make a reasonable counter-argument,
you must respond to the entire paragraph, not just one sentence.
btw, the point of that argument was solely to prove that getweb depends on
non-free data, which should be quite obvious, but arguments are somehow
being made against that fact.
That being said, packages that exist solely to download external
non-free content have traditionally been considered contrib material.
If this is just a helper script that nothing else in the package uses,
it seems perfectly fine to me to keep it in main, but ship the script in
examples/ or something.
getweb can be considered a helper script, but it also exists solely to
download non-free content. so it falls in to both of your categories.
the rest of the package does not invoke getweb, but can make use of the
stuff that is download given that the user has invoked the script himself
or herself first.
regards,
mike
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